Day 3: Foundation of the Cross
“And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so.” (Genesis 1:9)
“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” (John 19:25)
On the third day of creation, something solid finally emerges. God calls dry ground out of the sea. What was once unstable gives way to something you can stand on. From that ground, the opportunity for the first inklings of life to appear.
For Mary Magdalene, the cross didn’t feel like that. It felt like everything was collapsing. Her teacher and friend had just been taken, condemned, and executed publicly to the delight of his enemies. Yet, while others scattered, Mary stayed. She remained at the foot of the cross, so consistently that centuries of Christian art can’t imagine the scene without her there.
In the moment, there was nothing about the cross that felt like foundation. But what looked like collapse was actually the unveiling of something unshakable. The cross becomes the clearest picture of the love of God.
After the resurrection, on the third day, everything shifts. The place of her deepest pain becomes the ground she stands on. What once felt like the end becomes the beginning. That once unbearable memory becomes the foundation of her witness, and the Church’s story.
Out of the chaos, solid ground.
From that ground, the first inklings of life in a redeemed world.
