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Mark 10:32-34
[Jesus] took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”

To ponder
A minor melody marks our cadence, yet you tune my ears for more than that. Resurrection is always the final number. - Arianne Braithwaite Lehn, Ash and Starlight

The End.
“And they all lived happily ever after.” “True love’s kiss broke the curse.” “Tiny Tim observed, ‘God bless us, every one!’ The End.”

Every story contains settings, characters, conflict, dialogue, a beginning, and an ending. But the beginnings and endings are what we tend to remember about good books, good movies, good stories in general. And at the end of the very best stories, the ones that stay with us, all the messy and complicated plot points are woven together in one giant and satisfying resolution. Some stories are better when we know the ending, but most of the time, we say “No spoilers please!” to friends who have already seen the movie or read the book. We want to be surprised.

God has a story, and we are part of it. God loves us so much that God gave away the ending, to give us hope during the hard parts. We (and the disciples) are let in on the secret - life comes after death and joy comes after suffering. And in every chapter, Jesus walks the road ahead of us and with us, so that at every twist and turn we are never alone.

Prayer

Lord of life, preserve and protect us when struggles and disasters strike. Amen.

(from: “A Story to Tell: Devotions for Lent” Bekki Lohrmann, Harvard Stephens Jr., Lydia Posselt, David L. Miller; Augsburg Fortress, 2020)

 

Photo by Kelli McClintock on Unsplash