It’s Good Friday and my heart is heavy as I ponder the loss of this day. We have the privilege of knowing the rest of the story but the people living in the midst of it did not.

Jesus. Son. Friend. Teacher. Comforter. Leader. A man of passion and compassion. Savior. While they may not have understood the magnitude of who he was – the men and women who had been doing life with him still felt the sting of his loss.

The pain. The sorrow. The confusion. They missed his presence already.

It’s easy, out of self preservation, to view this day as just one step closer to Sunday. The day of life and resurrection and all things new. But, in my opinion, we need to sit in the heaviness of Friday.

Imagine the one you love inside the tomb – behind the stone. The one who loved you more than his own life. The one who entered the deep darkness so that you and I would never have to experience it. We need to feel the ache and emptiness.

Sunday is coming. But today is Friday.