Originally published 4/19/17.
I created this piece as a part of my Good Friday observance in 2017. It’s gesso and acrylic on top of a 7″ x 7″ wooden plaque I received as a gift in 1977.
Underneath my image of crucifixion leading to new life is the Goethe quote:
Nothing should be more highly prized than the value of each day.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
While painting, I recalled these words, meditating on the value of this particular day when the man Jesus died on the cross. After experiencing the anguish of betrayal by loved ones, he was the target of contempt, ridicule and excruciating physical torture ending in his death.
His response to this was love.
Refusing to hate, to blame, to bargain or grovel — he offered himself up — in love.
This “was done for us” to establish the pattern we, too, will follow in our own transformations. It is the way of the cross and the mystery of Christ.
JULIE ANN STEVENS 