The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beeching
Day 36 – Tuesday in Holy Week – The Greatest Gift
To Read:
From the Scriptures:
….while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely, therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. (Romans 8v6-10)
From Vicky Beeching:
The Greatest Gift
Son of God, You Reign in heaven’s glory
Yet You chose to come to earth and save me
Humbled Yourself to die the cruellest death
No other act of love compares to this (repeats)
The greatest gift I’ve ever received
Is the cross, the cross
For there You gave Yourself up for me
On the cross, the cross
Your heart aches for all the lost and hurting
At the cross You wait to take our burdens
Longing to heal our wounds and make us whole
Longing to hear us sing with thankful souls
Chorus
And with the blood You poured out for me
You have saved my soul
You have given me
The greatest gift of all
The greatest gift of all
Chorus
And with the blood You poured out for me
You have saved my soul
You have given me
The greatest gift of all
The greatest gift of all
What a love, what a love, what a love You’ve shown (repeats)
To Listen: The Greatest Gift by Vicky Beeching
To Reflect:
Have your Social Media[1] channels been flooded with the wonderful Easter news that, after the Christmas blow-out, few had expected? Yes! The great fresh veg sell-off is here again! Supermarkets up and down the country are trying to out-do each other with the cheapest price available on vegetables (as well as some meat) for the family Easter Roast. With most items selling for as little as 8p for 2Kg of produce this is good news indeed.
Taking the well proven practice of attracting people to spend by using a Loss Leader[2], we should all benefit a little so long as we don’t then end up splurging on other more expensive Easter goodies whilst picking up our bargains. [Note to self: Stay away from the chocolate aisle Andrew and nobody gets hurt…]
Isn’t it good, even if it is for fiscal rather than eternal reasons, that many people see Easter as a time to pick up a bargain?
But, after all, isn’t that what Easter is about?
Easter has always been BOGOF – Buy One Get One Free.
As our reading from Romans reminds us we, not deserving this the greatest of all gifts, have the love of the One Who Loves us Best lavished upon us not once but twice! We are saved by the death of our Beloved and we are saved even more by His Resurrection. And it cost us not a penny at the gates of Paradise where there are no tills for;
….the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6v23)
And that has got to be better than any supermarket deal we may be offered on any day of our life.
To Pray:
O Christ,
whose wondrous birth meanest nothing
unless we be born again,
whose death and sacrifice nothing
unless we die unto sin,
whose resurrection nothing
if thou be risen alone:
Raise and exalt us, O Saviour,
both now to the estate of grace
and hereafter to the state of glory;
where with the Father and the Holy Spirit
thou livest and reignest,
God for ever and ever.
(Eric Milner-White)
To Do:
Pick up a few supermarket bargains and take the food to your local food bank. For less than £5 you could be changing many lives.
oooOOOooo
If you would like to find out more about Vicky and her work here is a link to her Wikipedia entry. For a fuller picture her autobiography ‘Undivided’ is highly recommended
Please Note: These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.
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Acknowledgements:
These Reflections, ‘The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beaching’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2026 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that their source is acknowledged.
All of the music on the video clips are from YouTube and are © Vicky Beeching.
If you enjoy listening to her songs please consider buying her recordings. A full discography and other information about Vicky can be found on her website vickybeeching.com.
Scripture quotations are from The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Prayers are from A Diary of Prayer compiled by Elizabeth Goudge and are copyright © 1966 The Estate of Elizabeth Goudge.
[1] If you want some very good advice on reducing the cost of your food spending Lorna and her team at ‘Feed Your Family for £20 a Week’ are a great place to start: https://www.facebook.com/fyf20quid
[2] For details as to how Loss Leaders work read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader
Suffolk Vicar 