by Rev. Care Crawford :: Holy Week . . . here already, here again. I have come to Holy Week and all the promise it holds with a different or fresh perspective in the past ten or so years. My dad died over ten years ago. Now Holy Week and the promise of the cross and empty tomb remind me of the gift and invitation of heaven, of eternal life. It is in the forgiveness of our sins and that promise of “life everlasting”, as the Scripture says, that we bank on . . . Christ amazing sacrifice and love for us. As I enter Holy Week in the past many years since my dad died, and more recently since my brother David and Uncle Graham too went to be with the Lord, I think about heaven a lot!
I miss my dad. There is rarely a day that goes by that I don’t think of him, wonder about heaven and have that “ache” of the empty place that God does not fill, but leaves empty in the relationship that was and will be one day, reunited in heaven’s embrace. I am not sure how it works in heaven; none of us can be quite sure. Scripture tells us that the Spirit prays for us, and in that Trinity, I sometimes smile thinking that my dad is praying with Jesus for me. I count on it and feel the strength that Christ’s prayers, the Spirit’s, “sighs”—deeper than words bring to me.
My dad was a minister, and a great preacher, a great “pray-er”. . . a man of words. He had command of the language and could weave a phrase and pray a prayer which was eloquent and pierced to the places of the heart which ministered to you and brought blessing- smiles and tears at once.
I had the opportunity to experience the blessings of that eloquence and the deep place of my heart in smiles and tears the other day. I opened my mail and in a card from my mom was a typed prayer. It was one of the prayers my father had prayed at a Maundy Thursday service long ago. To my remembrance I had never heard or seen the prayer. It was a gift that brought a smile of assurance from heaven to me and a tear of missing as well as acknowledgement to the truth and hope it spoke. I share it here as it came to me through my mom’s note. May it be for you an encouragement and blessing as you listen to the Lord’s command this Maundy Thursday—coming to the table, “do this in remembrance of Me.” And in all your remembrances, might you recognize yourself in the story of His passion and follow!
A DAVID LIVINGSTONE CRAWFORD PRAYER
Help us, gracious God, with open minds and contrite hearts
to feel our way into the meaning and mystery of this table.
Quicken our imagination to the end that what went on in
that upper room may come alive for us, for we would sit at
the table with the 12 and open ourselves to the close-up
presence of Christ.
So brittle is our faith in Your providence that we
can only stand and stare when One who’s ways are perfect
shuns all complaining in His final hours and asks Thy
blessing on the meal.
O God, we do not sit in judgment on the disciples for
having hassled with one another over who was the greatest…
for pride has often marred our lives as well.
We are not surprised that one by one that night they asked
when betrayal was announced, “Is it I?” for like us,
they knew full well that under similar circumstances anyone
of them could cash their Master in.
We bow before Thee awed by the mystery of Thy suffering and love.
Forgive us that our preference runs to Bethlehem and the
Garden Tomb, to poinsettias’ and lilies and away from
Golgotha with its twisted thorns and iron nails.
Forgive us that we are far more willing to be instructed
than we are to be redeemed. Give us reachable and pliable
responses to Your grace, willing captives of the wonder that
Thy dear Son became a captive that we might become free
by letting Him be judged guilty…that we might be innocent by
letting Him suffer….that we might have joy by giving Him up
to death.
We have not deserved such mercy, not one of us. How else
should we thank Thee except by comprehending this great deed
and how can that happen unless the living Savior comes to
speak to our hearts and open us to Your love?
We offer our prayer in faith with Thanksgiving, through
Jesus Christ our dear Savior. Amen.
