March 24, 2024
When you are down and broken. When you feel wounded and left at the side of the road. When even those who were supposed to love you give you a wide berth or have no energy left to focus on you. When the isolation of the present moment feels like it will rip you apart inside. When the place that once was a garden has become a place of abandonment.
Know. This.
Jesus has been there.
Jesus is there.
You are still loved.
That love is not dependant on your goodness, beauty or cleverness.
There is a Latin phrase (of course there is –why do things sound more authoritative in Latin?!): Quia amasti me, fecisti me amabilem. (In loving me, you made me lovable.)
As we look to the events of Easter week and see the suffering and brokenness of Jesus, remember that he entered brokenness to blaze a trail through the darkness. He bids us come and walk with him in our shadows and pain. He won’t come unless invited, but even so, he is always close.
We all have wounds that seem intractable, incurable. We carry our battle scars.
But here is the hope on that journey:
“…we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every respect as we are…” (Heb 4v15)
May you know that presence this Easter season.
Julian Holdsworth
BSBC Pastor