Good Friday.

In my opinion, most of them are good, because they signal the winding down of the work week and a chance to relax or change course, if only for a couple of days.  Every Friday that I'm able rise and experience the day is a gift of goodness.

However, today's Good Friday - the official one in the Christian faith -   is symbolic of so much more. We recognize this day of Jesus' persecution as the period when the greatest gift of love for mankind was rendered.

Yet from the world's perspective, it seems strange to call the day "good."  Why, they must wonder, would we commemorate the day that our so-called Savior was slain by calling it good?

The answers come easily for me, at this point.

I do so because I believe the many promises sprinkled throughout God's Word that ensure sunshine after rain and joy after tears.

Faith compels us to not only consider circumstances within our view, but also to remember that our all-knowing, all-powerful Heavenly Father sees well beyond our frame of reference and knows how to handle what looms.

When situations seem the worst, God already has a plan.

So it is with Good Friday.

We don't celebrate the horrible manner in which Jesus was treated leading up to his Cruxifixion, or the fact that he was brutally slain.

What makes this day good is the goodness of Jesus' heart. He loved us enough to surrrender his life for ours. In the process, he taught us the value of forgiveness, by pardoning those who brutalized and ridiculed him.

What makes this day good is our faith that Jesus overcame death, to live again in our hearts and through the Holy Spirit.

His resurrection that first Easter morning gave us a new hope and a new chance for eternal life, with only one string attached - that we love him first and best.

It makes sense then, that to appreciate the gift of "Sonrise" Sunday, we have to endure the reality of Good Friday. Celebrating in preparation for that victory seems fitting.

Every good and perfect gift is from above.... (James 1:17)

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Stacy Hawkins Adams is the author of the Christian fiction novels Nothing but the Right Thing and Speak To My Heart. She is also a freelance writer and inspirational columnist. Stacy often speaks to audiences about the blessings that come with authentically living one's faith. She and her husband, Donald, have two children.

Visit Stacy's Crosswalk.com weblog.