Journeying to Grace

I received one of those ‘share your story’ books with specific questions about favorite childhood memories, visiting grandparents, school mascots, first job, etc.  Once I provide my answers and personal memories, then family members will have these additional details about my earlier years. I’m not sure it will be a very interesting read, but one question was especially fun for me to think about and, like most of the book’s questions, took me down ‘memory lane.’ It asked me to list the movies I have seen at least 10 times. Once I began remembering and noting them, I ran out of room on the space provided. Though no one has read my answers yet, I am a little embarrassed at how many titles are on that list. (What would be on your list?) There are likely some movies we watch and rewatch even though we know exactly what’s going to happen. Maybe we even recite lines along with the actors. What is it about those films? Whether it’s the genre, characters, or story line, we are drawn in because of how they make us feel, and for us, these scenes are worth experiencing again.

The idea of revisiting familiar scenes helps me during Lent. We know this ‘movie’ of our Lenten journey with Jesus very well and have ‘seen’ it several times. We can even recite most of the major lines. And though we accompany Jesus through these powerful images again, we are in a different spiritual place from last Lent or the Lent before or the Lent before that. This Lent offers something new for our spirit, and I find the scenes of Lent to be invitations to enlighten our prayer and contemplation. They are moments to enter so we can encounter what God would like us to see, hear, and experience this time.

Specific to your spirit this Lent, what scene might be helpful to your prayer in overcoming an issue or finding peace? Is there a passage or moment or line that could lovingly work in you this season? As an example, one that helps me is Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. I am prayerful about having more grace to accept when someone is washing my feet/reaching out to me in love to support me. I need to simply accept their kindness and care. God gave them to me. He is working through them. And then I hope to recognize when it is my turn to wash someone else’s feet. I pray I become more aware of the suffering or hurt around me, so I can also be an instrument of God’s love and care to someone else.

Where might God invite you to uniquely experience His love and mercy this Lent? Being near Jesus entering Jerusalem and hearing Hosanna? Witnessing Jesus heal the soldier’s wounded ear? Watching in the background as Simon is called upon to help carry Jesus’s heavy, brutal burden? Weeping with His loved ones at the foot of the cross? Let us pray that as we accompany Christ and His Cross, we find our special place of prayer with Him, so we may be restored by His sacrificial love and renewed by His perfect grace.