When Love Stayed

There’s a holy heaviness to today.

Not because we forget what’s coming Sunday,
but because we remember what it cost to get there.

Today we slow down.
We remember a Savior who didn’t run.
Didn’t defend Himself.
Didn’t call down angels to intervene.

He stayed.

“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth;
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter…”
—Isaiah 53:7

Jesus stayed through the mocking.
Stayed through the beating.
Stayed through the silence of friends who scattered.

And He stayed on the cross when He could have come down.

This isn’t the part of the story we like to sit in.
We’d rather skip to the sunrise and the stone rolled away.

But sometimes, the deepest worship happens in the waiting.
In the stillness.
In the grief.

Because if you’ve ever felt abandoned
If you’ve ever carried weight that wasn’t yours
If you’ve ever had to love someone who wasn’t loving you back

Jesus gets it.

Good Friday reminds us that real love doesn’t flinch.
It doesn’t quit.
It doesn’t walk away when things get dark.

It stays.

Maybe that’s what He’s asking of us today too.
To sit in the tension.
To let ourselves feel the weight of what He carried.
To trust that even when it looks finished, it’s not over.

A Prayer for Good Friday

Jesus, thank You for staying.
For not turning back.
For loving through pain.
Help me carry that kind of love into the world today—humble, selfless, and steady.
Amen.