Good Friday was that day when it seemed that God was most absent from our world, when he turned his face on his own Son and his back on his creation.  But it wasn't so.  From the blackest day came the brightest hope.  At the cross, our Father proved his love for his children, now and forever.

Now, what causes you to wonder if God is on your side?  What trouble, trauma, guilt or fear has led you to question his love for you?  You do not know all the ways God is redeeming your struggles in the present, making you more like Christ and using you for his glory.  You do not know all the ways God is redeeming your pain for eternity, but one day you will.  In the meantime, when it is hardest to believe that God is on your side, remember the cross.

A few years ago I was speaking at Huntsville.  Afterwards, the pastor and warden of the prison invited me on a tour of the facility.  The warden was a good and godly man, a true follower of Jesus who did his work as a ministry unto the Lord.  He took us through the cell blocks, the prison yard, the chapel, the cafeteria.  Then we came to the execution chamber.  As long as I live, I will never forget the experience.

We passed holding cells where the condemned are taken before they die.  A telephone sits on a table outside, in case the governor calls to delay or commute the execution.  When it doesn't ring, at midnight the prisoner is taken from the cell down a short hallway through a door into the execution room.

Its cinder block walls are painted green.  There is a table in the center, much like what you see in a doctor's office, except that it has arms which extend on each side.  The prisoner is strapped to this table, his arms tied to the extensions.  An IV is started in his right arm, its tubes snaking from the table to the wall on his right and through to the room on the other side where the doctor waits to administer the lethal drugs.  Then the curtains to his left are drawn back so the families can watch through plate glass window.

At the appointed moment, the drugs are injected into the IVs and into the prisoner.  A few moments later, on a bed shaped like a cross, he dies.

When I stood in that room, an image of Ryan or Craig strapped to that execution bed flashed through my mind.  Tears filled my eyes and grief pierced my soul.  If at the last moment, just as one of my sons was about to die, that godly warden had stepped in and put his son in my son's place, choosing to watch him die so my son could live, I would never, ever wonder if he was on my side, if he loved me.

Would you?