The Woman at the Cross

Phyllis Lowe 

As you revealed Yourself in the fearsome Holiness of God,

I bowed before the cross without excuse. 

Guilty and naked, I stood before the divine scrutiny of God,

Without a plea of anything but total condemnation!

I cringed there, smeared and convicted of the filth of my SELF

And without hope, before Your Holiness.

Then in Your great love and mercy, You pulled me to Yourself

And made me aware of Your pity and grace. 

And I cried Savior!..

And took hold on Your cross with all of my being,

In all of my ugliness and guilt,

In all of my humanity.

Then tenderly the drops of blood fell on me.

They crept through my hair

And oozed over my ugliness, washing me clean.

And in me was a lightness and relief

As you washed me and made me new,

As you covered my nakedness with Your Blood.

And, as in days of old, as my nearest Kinsman,

You redeemed me for a Price.

A price too terrible and holy to imagine!

Such love, such unbelievable love,

That the Son of God would die for me!

Inept, unprofitable, dirty, self-consumed,

Wounded with many arrows,

Splattered with the filth of the road,

How can this be that You would die for me!

Help me remember from whence I came

And the grace that set me free!

Help me feel again, now and then

The drops of blood that fell on me!

Help me to walk in Your Grace

And never try it on my own!

Keep me, oh Lord, from Self-Righteousness,

And draw me close, nor loose Your hold on me!

Oh Jesus, Holy Son of God, I worship Thee!

My Savior and my King!

Words do not come that can describe my heart toward Thee,

The Holy Sacrifice, The Lamb,

Who died in place of me!