In Toledo, Spain, there is an old cathedral. Visitors to the cathedral are told about a cardinal who is buried there. Tourists are directed to a side altar where the cardinal is buried in the floor. Just over the grave, a cardinal's hat is fastened to the ceiling. Since his burial a legend has developed about the cardinal and his hat. The legend states that when the hat falls from the ceiling to the floor, this will indicate that the soul of the cardinal has entered heaven. The only problem is that the hat has been hanging in the cathedral for 400 years.

What good news our Lord gives us! We don't have to wait 400 years to spend eternity with him. The promise is that "today" we can have eternal life. We don't have to worry that we have done enough to earn our way. He has made the way possible through his death, burial, and resurrection. If he can make this promise to the one dying next to him, certainly it applies to you as well. "Today is the day of salvation."

Adapted from John Brokhoff, Grace Words From The Cross (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Co., Inc.), p. 17.