Large tears rolled down my daughter’s cheeks. “Nooooooooo!” she wailed.

The scene had been going on for about five minutes now. My husband was trying to change Evelyn’s diaper, which was wet and heavy and very smelly. My daughter was crying like her heart was breaking into a million pieces.

“Waaaaaant stinky diaper!”

Twenty minutes after he had finally gotten her changed, she was sitting in front of the diaper pail, still crying.

“Waaaaaant stinky diaper!”

I’m sure that the neighbours could hear her crying. I’m sure that they thought that we were inflicting some sort of cruel and unusual punishment on our daughter. We were merely trying to put a clean diaper on her.

Don’t we so often do the same thing? We hold tightly to our hurts.

“Waaaaaant stinky diaper!”

We hold tightly to our addictions.

“Waaaaaant stinky diaper!”

We hold tightly to our anger.

“Waaaaaant stinky diaper!”

Why? When there is hope, freedom, and chance to have a fresh, clean start, why are we holding so tightly to the past? Why are we so desperately clutching our sin? The thought of relinquishing those things makes us act like our hearts are being broken into a million pieces. Why?

Today is Good Friday. Today, we celebrate the One whose breath on our souls brings life. The One who gave everything so that we could be free. The One whose grace doesn’t just drip on us, but it washes over us like a tidal wave, leaving us completely and totally clean. Every sin, every addiction, every ounce of bitterness, every hurt is gone. They are washed away in the flood of His love.

Today is Good Friday. What better time to let it all go?

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)