The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beeching
Day 38 – Maundy Thursday – The Wonder of the Cross
To Read:
From the Scriptures:
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3v4-7)
From Vicky Beeching:
The Wonder of the Cross (reprise)
O precious sight, my Saviour stands,
Dying for me with outstretched hands.
O precious sight; I love to gaze,
Remembering salvation’s day,
Remembering salvation’s day.
Though my eyes linger on this scene,
May passing time and years not steal
The power with which it impacts me,
The freshness of its mystery,
The freshness of its mystery.
May I never lose the wonder, the wonder of the cross
May I see it like the first time, standing as a sinner lost.
Undone by mercy and left speechless, watching wide-eyed at the cost.
May I never lose the wonder the wonder of the cross.
Behold, the God – Man crucified,
The perfect sinless sacrifice.
As blood ran down those nails and wood,
History was split in two,
History was split in two.
Behold, the empty wooden tree,
His body gone, alive and free.
We sing with everlasting joy
For sin and death have been destroyed,
Yes, sin and death have been destroyed.
Chorus – repeats
To Listen: The Wonder of the Cross (reprise) by Vicky Beeching
To Reflect:
This Easter is my final day of leading worship in Kesgrave and my final Easter before retirement in the Summer. I’m not yet sure how I will meet it. I know I will need plenty of Kleenex tissues and have already received some lovely gifts and greetings from those amongst whom I minister. I’d like to mention one of them.
A card from one of my Churchwardens, who must have peaked into my computer files to find out today’s song, has a lovely drawing of a North Country field. In it stands a plain cross with a dry-stone wall and a path leading up a hillside behind it. In amongst the fields and the clouds, the hillside and the footpaths, is written a verse from Isaac Watt’s hymn ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’. I haven’t spoken with her about today’s song but I’m sure that it is this hymn which Vicky echoes in today’s song. But as Vicky usually does she takes things one step deeper…
May I never lose the wonder, the wonder of the cross
May I see it like the first time, standing as a sinner lost.
Yes, the cross is wondrous and beautiful and humbling but if you have been trying to follow the way of our Beloved as long as I have you will know the challenge of losing the freshness and exhilaration of our first faith. Sometimes, when I don’t keep the love of our Beloved shining bright from the Cross before me, I can fool myself that I’m not that much of a sinner lost after all. There have even been times when I have a feeling I may well have been a founder member of the Church of Laodicea! (Revelation 3v14-22)
Vicky’s song today calls us to look upon the cross each time as if it was the first time we met this love and once again find ourselves to be;
Undone by mercy and left speechless, watching wide-eyed at the cost.
I don’t know if you can remember the first time you looked at the Cross and melted with love and wonder. Some can point to, like Saul become Paul on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9v1-9), a moment of conversion. I am thankful that I can point to a particular time in my life when I knew this love more deeply.
It was at the end of an Easter Term at boarding school. We were belting out, as boys in Boarding school are wont to do, John Ireland’s beautiful tune to Love Unknown when I found that I was suddenly alone in a sea of 700. This was the line we loved shouting, and this was the line that ripped my heart apart;
then ‘Crucify!’ is all their breath, and for his death they thirst and cry.
That Easter term was like no other. I stopped singing, sat down, and wept my poor little teenage eyes out. From that moment on, although I had a solid Christian background, I owned these words for myself and knew that I had a friend with whom I wanted to hang out with for eternity;
This is my friend in whose sweet praise I all my days could gladly spend.
I’m not sure this is how everyone meets the love of our Beloved. For me it wasn’t the first time I had a glimmer of that love. I knew this love before that time in the School Chapel, and have been blessed with many more moments of ‘conversion’ since then. Moments when I find myself standing wide-eyed and speechless at the Wonder of the Cross.
In these last few days of Lent step closer. Try to stand at the cross and remember what it was the first time you stood there as a lost sinner.
Then, as the Laodicean Christians were encouraged, listen for the knocking of the Light of the World on your heart’s door and let love in.
To Pray:
O Thou whose love to man was proven
in the passion and death
of Jesus Christ our Lord,
let the power of His cross be with me to-day.
Let me love as He loved.
Let my obedience be unto death.
In leaning upon His Cross,
let me not refuse my own;
yet in bearing mine,
let me bear it by the strength of His.
(John Baillie)
To Do:
Find a quiet comfortable space to sit.
Imagine you are back at the beginning, or one of the new beginning moments, of your journey with the One Who Loves us Best.
Once you are there simply gaze and listen.
To Make me (and perhaps you) Cry;
Totally selfish video from me here. But if you need to do something extra over the next few days watch and sing along to this. Tissues will be required.
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.
Suffolk Vicar 