A Good Friday Birthday and Sunday's Gift 🎁

Born on a Friday

Emily’s parents wanted to share this beautiful “cross in the sky” they saw as they went to visit her grave last year on Emily’s birthday.  The following is an excerpt from Living Memento Mori (Prelude), in which she conveys a bit about her feelings of being born on Good Friday.

Excerpt from Living Memento Mori (Prelude)

The passage doesn’t end happily ever after, but looking through Emily’s life and hardships, she was drawn closer to the Lord in spite of them. She saw everything Christ endured and she knew that if He was willing to withstand all He did for her sake (and ours), that she could trust Him with her life and health. It became her testimony just like the things He brings you to and through are yours give you your testimony to be able to share His gospel and goodness with others.

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A Friday of Suffering, A Friday of Hope

We started Holy Week off earlier this week with a post explaining Holy Week and the Stations of the Cross and their meaning, but now as the week comes to its final and most significant days, we want to leave you with important points to ponder.

Emily’s reading of Isaiah during Easter 2023.

Now it’s Good Friday, considered the darkest moment in human history by Christ followers, but 2000+ years later, we know the history before this day and we know what followed 3 days later.

Listen to Emily’s reading from Isaiah (starting at the 6:10 mark), a major prophetic telling of what horror our precious Lord Jesus bare. That day that would come to be known as “Good Friday” all because of His obedience to God the Father and His love to endure for our sakes.

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A Sunday Like No Other

Below is another excerpt from Living Memento Mori (pages 79-80), which Emily wrote as a retelling with additional though observations from the women who went to care for Jesus’s body at the tomb on what’s now known as Easter morning.

Excerpt from Living Memento Mori (pages 79-80)

And finally, we would be remiss not to mention once more that Emily’s book, Living Memento Mori, is especially pertinent for Holy Week as each chapter is intertwined with a Station of the Cross. She does a beautiful job relating each station to her and encourages everyone in their own challenges. 

Easter 2025: Special Reading and Pilate's Wife

From the movie, “The Passion of the Christ”. A representation of Jesus carrying the cross with Simon of Cyrene.

Who Would Believe?

Who would believe a baby born in a stable in Bethlehem would be worshipped by wise kings from afar, and later, so many throughout the generations that followed?

Who would believe this man who had no home of his own and traveled with fishermen, harlots, and tax collectors would become the most spoken name in history?

Who would believe this man was not just a man, but the only Son of God, whose mission all along was to take on all the punishment we deserved to save you and I?

Emily reading from the book of Isaiah in 2023.

Emily loved the time surrounding the sacred remembrance of Good Friday and Easter. April 9th would have been her 43rd birthday and she was even fortunate enough that her birthday would fall on Easter day on occasion.

A few years ago, Emily wrote this beautiful fictional piece called “Pilate’s Wife” about the ministry and trial of Jesus through the eyes of Claudia, Pontius Pilate’s wife (Matthew 27:19). Please takes some time to read it and consider this fresh perspective she’d woven.

Also, here is Emily’s special reading from Isaiah in 2023. If you scroll to the 6:10 minute marker then you can hear her 4 minute, striking interpretation of the Living Word.

Image depicting three crosses standing on a hill as rays of light pour into an empty tomb.

We hope that Lent this year was full of meaning, reflection, and times of serving one another. Our prayer is that you don’t lose the meaning of the season just because the official observation is almost complete!

Good Friday is upon us, with all the heartache the thought of this day brings. The thought of Jesus’ anguish in the garden over the reality of what was to come, the betrayal of everyone who had walked with Him, the mock trials full of lies to charge Him, the beatings, tearing of flesh, spitting in his face, being stripped naked, a crown of thorns pushed into His skull, and finally, being given his own cross to carry, where He was nailed to and lifted up to bare all our sins and iniquities. The Father turned His face from Him as he breathed His last and the temple veil tore in two so that we would know no more separation from Him.

But we all know the story didn’t end there.

Good Friday is here, but there’s hope emanating from an empty tomb. Easter is coming.

“He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.”

Matthew 28:6 (NLT)