Reflections on Holy Week

I love Easter.  I look forward to it each year.  Easter helps me focus on Christ our Savior who is alive today - my savior and friend - who advocates for even me...one who deserves NONE of it.  He died to save us from the sin that separates us from our creator.  I love Easter.

Holy week - or the week leading up to Easter - (along with the Lenten season) - is a great time to reflect on the events of the time preceding Christ's death and resurrection.  But last year Holy week changed for me.

I remember posting one word on my Facebook status on Palm Sunday last year...Hosannah.  Hosannah means "save us" - and it was shouted to Jesus as he entered Jerusalem on a donkey - just days before he was crucified (this story is what is remembered on Palm Sunday).  What I didn't realize was how much I would need to lean on Christ to "save us" in our moments of grief that began that night - when we discovered our unborn child - whom we were expecting to join us in this life so soon - no longer had a beating heart.  It was the day after Palm Sunday that our son, Isaiah, was delivered silently into this world...loved...cherished...missed by so many.  It was the week leading up to Easter that we planned a funeral and woke each day to the shock that our son had died.  It was the day before Easter Sunday that so many graciously gathered to love and miss our child with us -- while still holding to the hope of Christ and proclaiming our faith not only in the fact that we would see Isaiah again - but that we trusted God - even amidst this storm.

I have been expecting the arrival of April 2 next week to be a hard time.  The anniversary of Isaiah's birth/death would seem to be an obvious time to remember...and it might very well be hard.  But grief is so funny that way -- it attacks when you least expect it -- and sometimes the "obvious" times that should be hard just aren't.  I definitely wasn't expecting Holy week to bring back so many memories this year...yet it has.  The date of Easter will change each year - but I do wonder how much I will associate with Isaiah's actual birth date and how much I will associate his birth with Holy week.

Praise God that we have the hope of Easter - that Christ rose and is alive - so that we can count on him for salvation.  Without it we would not have hope...hope to be saved from sin...hope to know our Lord...hope to be with Isaiah for eternity.  This Easter - this Holy week - please consider the hope that is offered through Christ.  Without it - this life is hopeless.