2010 Holy Week Thursday

Greetings Dear Reader,

I am intrigued by the things that I focus on at this time of year. I have read over my writing for the past few years regarding Holy Week and realized that my view has transitioned so much from my religious roots. The trappings that so many have put around this day mean little to me but there are things that have also grown in my thinking.

I find the contradictions of redemption so amazing. As a writer of fiction I try to stay keenly aware of what constitutes the unbelievable. Michael Card wrote, “No fiction this fantastic and wild, a mother made by her own child. That helpless babe that cried was God incarnate and man deified. Oh’ that is the mystery.”

What fascinates me and is significant to today is that God used death to give life. We invited death into the world through our sin. The entire ecosystem was transformed to a death based ecosystem. Things had to die for life to continue. It is an acorn that dies in the soil that yields an oak. We consume plants and animals to sustain our lives. God turned that death into a fighting chance for us to live. He used the contradiction of death yielding life to redeem us to himself.

That Christ would die for me still astounds me. It was in April of 1974 that I accepted this truth and the journey has been one of toil and struggle but filled with joy. As we remember that today Christ is beaten, mocked, tortured, and killed for us, it is both sorrowful and joyous. The sorrow that my beloved Christ would have to die for my failures is harsh and bitter. The joy that he used that necessity to bring me life is one that moves me to become all that I can to reflect his love and compassion for others who still need him.

I will never be all that I wish to be and I am sure that I will fail many more times before I reach the end of the path. I am also sure that I will arise each day and give myself back to Christ in the hope that I may follow him a little more closely in both the gall and the honey of life. We live is a death enshrouded world but a new world is on its way. It is Maundy Thursday, but Sunday’s coming.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a home owner. He brings new and old things out of his treasure store."