For millions of Christians around the world, Good Friday will be a day of reflecting and rejoicing.

On the surface, the name seems ill placed. On Good Friday Christians will remember the day of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion on the cross.

A painful, slow death is not typically something typically referred to as “good.”

But despite the misnomer of sorts, for Christians, the day is, in fact, good. It’s great even because of the amazing sacrifice the Son of God gave in accepting the punishment of death for our sins.

The characteristics of Christ are more important for us all to emulate today than perhaps ever in history.

Christ taught us to love one another.

He taught us to be humble.

Christ taught us everyone mattered — that was described in the Bible as Jews and Gentiles alike. Today that could be Christians, unbelievers, Muslims or any other religion.

America, a country founded on the premise of religious tolerance, has become a place which is at times dominated by xenophobes and divided by lines of hate created by differences in race, economic upbringing and social class.

As Christians prepare to celebrate Good Friday, we can envision how different America might be if our country merely followed Christ’s leadership example when He was here on earth.