Faith is an incredibly personal issue. A framing of self into a bigger picture that calls upon every part of our selves in a decision to follow a certain journey.

It’s perhaps why religion is up there with politics in things one shouldn’t talk about at a dinner party. We even talk about a personal relationship with Christ, our ‘personal Lord and Saviour’.

But as we stand at the cross, on this day, we look around us at another 6 billion people, and behind us at the 100 billion people who have lived their lives on this planet, we appreciate that we stand together as a family and a people that God loves beyond measure.

And as we look back towards the cross, we see the evidence of this love, brought to focus in one man’s actions. The marks and suffering that we can see before us, so that we can have hope for the future, and be freed of the burdens that we have lumbered ourselves with.

And we know that it was not just for us. We are connected to one another through the sacrifice that Christ has made for us. We share the gift that he has given to us through his life and death. Through Jesus’ actions we are bound together as a people under God’s grace, love and mercy, and rescued and given hope from our collective actions that harm ourselves, each other and our world.

Everyone I meet, today, tomorrow and beyond, is a recipient of that same grace that we experience and embrace here today. It makes me consider how differently I would see them, treat them, relate to them, if I could see them as I see the people in this image before me. Framed by the sacrifice of Christ, and the cross he bore.