heart for "her"

Until now, I had been trying to avoid putting myself through such a violent movie as that of the Passion of the Christ. As a part of our Easter homegroup preparations however, we found it important to come closer to the meaning of a Christ who died for all our sins before he was resurrected from the dead. We had a sort of last supper with bread without yeast, lamb roasted on the fire, lentils and an apple and wine sort of mix. Leens placed figs, dates and raisins on the table for a snack, but by the time the film got going, we pretty much all lost our appetite. I was blown away by many elements in this film. It was so graphic, so real, so raw. Besides the gruesome torture Jesus was put through though, you could see his gentle interaction with women. They were second class citizens as usual, but they were unique in Jesus' eyes. He was so just! His tenderness towards the prostitute in the flashback was so deep and pure. As we talked about numerous aspects and dynamics of the film, I quietly thought to myself how I was told to just accept a recent case of blantant gender discrimination (in 2006?!). You know, the sort of: "you have all it takes and even more than your male counterpart, but sorry, you still aren't a guy, therefore you don't stand a chance." So why should I just accept it? No way, I want to stand up, yell, tell them what they're doing is wrong. I thought to myself tonight: 'Yeah, that's it. This Jesus loves me and wants me to draw nearer to Him just as much as my male friends". And a tear dropped from my eye - just from the revelation of His acceptance of girls like me as vital players in the Easter story. We finished the evening discussing even heavier issues and Leens brought in a planter. Fab' poured soil into the planter and we each symbolically planted seeds of new life after a short time of individual prayer. Because Jesus came not just to die. But to give us a new life. Awesome evening.