Suffering

I've been thinking about the suffering of Christ and the fellowship that we have with Him when we share in His suffering. When we go through things that are unjust, undeserved, senseless, and even brutal, we are sharing in His suffering.

While Jesus was hanging on the cross,
the soldiers divided His clothes among themselves.
I wonder what they did with them.

There is something very intimate about the clothes
left behind after someone dies.

It is hard to clean out the closet and disperse of your loved one's clothes.
It's hard to open the plastic bag that holds the battered clothes that your once living child wore on his last day on earth.

Mary didn't get to keep the clothes Jesus last wore.
She didn't get to hold them close and smell His sweaty sweetness
mingled with the stench of death.
Even His bloody clothes were taken from her.

But Mary had blood on her clothes too.
When they took Jesus down from the cross,
she held Him and kissed Him
and cried.
His blood got on her clothes.

I wonder if she believed that He would rise again in three days.
I wonder what she did with her bloodstained clothes after she saw Him
living and breathing.

I cannot wait to meet this woman
who was acquainted with pain and suffering.
I cannot wait to meet this woman
who had joy beyond any other woman on earth.