Day 20 – Awaiting Angels
Sorrow that is according to the will of God produces repentance without regret ~ 2 Corinthians 7:10
The suffering Christ experienced in the desert transformed the parts of His nature He couldn’t change on His own. Sunbaked rock blistered the God-man’s feet until, through grit and determined striding, His hardened soles became the skin of endurance; those callused feet carried the warmth of God’s heart to people.
With every step in the desert, His hope was reborn. But with new hope came the companions of sorrow and suffering.
Sorrow walks alongside hope as a friend amid memories, shielding hope from its rabid enemy—arrogance. Our sorrows grant us the vision we lack. Suffering helps us focus, pruning our thoughts of what might have been and grafting in what is and what may become. And so our hope and compassion grow.
Fire begets fire, stone breaks stone, and the wind’s slow breath turns mountains into sand. As we wander our path, we wonder where it’s leading and how it’s changing us. We envision ourselves down the road, standing before the Holy Mountain undone with fear or whisked away into a heavenly paradise—maybe both. God knows. We need not imagine because the openness of God’s heart today takes our breath away.
Thanks for joining me on the Lenten journey. Twenty days to go.