Lent was a term I didn’t grow up with and yet it has me broken to pieces.
I am unwound, shattered, heaving in the memory of the Christ-man’s donkey ride to impending torment, torture, and death. He willingly went, and He knew what was to come. My heart aches, screaming for Him to avoid the pain – the betrayal, the denial, the whips ripping flesh and bruising bone. The public display of disgrace turned to flag-waiving, glory-freedom shining bright in darkness.
He breathes His last and the Earth shook. I too, am shaken. The veil rips and I too, am torn. Oh, my Savior, why for me? Why for anyone? This love that surpasses understanding – that cannot be fathomed by comparing it to anything in the known, but only the unknown. A love story that cannot be contained even in His Book, but spills out and into us through His Spirit, speaking, groaning the power of His overwhelming, complete love. “Who am I that the Lord of all creation dares to know my name?” This Savior dripping grace at the cross.
And I kneel there, unable to move. My tears mingling with His blood – that deep red whispering “rescued through mercy, forgiven by grace”. And I am nothing. And He. is. all.
And yet – I am His treasure, and He is my God. Oh this mystery of love, how can it be? It washes over me and I am rendered useless. unwoven. untied. by pure grace.
Luke 1:68-79
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come and has redeemed his people.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
