Consider the Cross

As mothers who have heard the words, “there is no heartbeat,” who have held the lifeless body of their precious baby, or who have watched their child take their final breath, the cross tells us that we are not alone. This day that we call “Good Friday” is the day that God watched His only Son die. Our God can and does empathize with us in our sorrow, because He has felt it too. 

That cross—it is heart-wrenching and bloody. It is shameful and full of rejection. It is painful, and terrifying, and yet so beautiful.

When I begin to think about what my Savior endured on that cross for me, my soul weighs heavy. It is never easy to linger there for very long. But linger we must. Our relationship with the cross is the single most important and defining thing about our lives. Not only does the cross carry the utmost significance on our past (the payment of our sin) and our future (eternity in God’s glorious presence), but it should also play the most prominent role in our lives right now, today, in this moment. 

Would you take a moment today to consider the cross with me? There is so much comfort there for our grieving hearts to find, if we would only stop long enough to discover it. 

On the days when you question this road that God has placed before you and your heart cries out to Him saying, “I know You had the power to do things differently, to choose a different plan, to accomplish this work in my life in another way,” look to the cross. Remember that Christ asked for those same things in the garden “with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him” before His death (Hebrews 5:7). “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me” (Luke 22:42). He agonized in prayer the entire night, sweating drops of blood, knowing the difficult road that He had come to walk, yet still surrendered to the Father. And because His cries and tears preceded your own, you can arrive at that same place of surrender. Dear one, you may not see it now, but His plan is greater.

When you feel like no one understands the pain you have endured, look to the cross. Christ gives hope and can heal every heart that is broken because He is acquainted with the deepest of sorrows. (Is. 53:3) He has been there. He can lead you through this pain, because He has felt it too. Jesus, our joy and comfort, was called “a man of sorrows.” Sweet sister, Christ alone can offer you the truest and deepest comfort, because He understands every ache of your heart. 

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you.”
-Psalm 55:22

When the burden you are carrying seems too heavy to bear, look to the cross. Because as Jesus entered His darkest hour, He prayed for you to be sanctified by the truth of His Word (John 17:15-21). In the midst of His own sorrow, His heart was looking ahead to you. He carried the burden of the cross on His back (John 19:17) and in His heart. And while He was on the cross, He shouldered the greatest burden in history—the sins of the entire world—and He endured.  And you can too, because He invites you to lay your burdens before Him.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
-Matthew 11:28

When you feel lonely and forgotten by those closest to you, look to the cross. When Jesus asked His disciples to pray with Him in the hours before His death, they fell asleep. He was betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver (Matt 26:14-16). During His betrayal and arrest, His friends “left Him and fled” (Matt. 26:56). During His trial, He watched the same people who had praised Him as king just a week earlier call for His crucifixion. And while He was on the cross, bearing the sin and the shame of the world, His Father turned His face away (Matt. 27:46). He understands how it feels to be “despised and rejected” (Is. 53:3).  And while you may face rejection or abandonment in your earthly relationships, you can hold on to the promise that God will never abandon you. 

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
-Hebrews 13:5b   

When your heart aches for the child(ren) you long to have here with you, look to the cross. Our precious babies are safe in the loving hands of Christ—hands that bear such sacred marks of His far-reaching love. He endured torture, ridicule, abandonment, shame, and death so that He could call you His own.

Through His death, He is able to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14).  Jesus defeated death, and through Him, we too can overcome the power of death. As devastating as it feels to be separated from your dearly loved child on this earth, find hope in the truth that your baby was given victory over death and received life everlasting with fulness of joy in the presence of our great God. His death made it possible for you to see your baby again one day. What a gift! A gift made possible through His wounds.

And so, on this Good Friday, and on every day to come, consider the cross. For it is there that our brokenness is mended, our greatest needs are met, and our hope is found.

Ashlee is the Editorial Coordinator for Hope Mommies and author of I AM (Hope Mommies, 2017) and Identity (Hope Mommies, 2018). She and her husband, Jesse, live in Milwaukee with their children—five on earth and two in heaven.

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