How do I describe what Good Friday means to me?

I'm not a person who seeks out sadness or dramatizes. I won't watch Hallmark movies.

But the sadness of Good Friday is a reverent one. It's a sadness that stops and remembers, replays what happened to Jesus that day. Acknowledge how painful it was, emotionally and physically. Realize anew that it was for me. It was my fault.

It's a sadness that feels like a heart breaking with love - no, no, with being loved. The sadness you feel when you realize how deeply loved you are and it moves you to tears. You melt inside.

On Maundy Thursday we remember how our Savior, our dear friend & brother Jesus, prayed with fear in the Garden of Gethaemane. We relive His betrayals by his dearest friends. We feel anguish in both empathy and thanksgiving.

On Good Friday we watch him suffer and die. We hear him cry out in isolation, loneliness, and heartbreak. We imagine the whips, the nails. We hear "It is finished" and wait for His exhale. Then, the earthquake. We rehearse the sequence. We grieve and we look up in gratitude

It's hard to say a day so sad is my favorite day of the year. But it is definitely the most profound day of the year. It's a breaking down and rebirth every year. It's the day I grow closer to my Lord, moreso than any other day of the year. For that, I'm thankful and this just might be my favorite day of the year.