For those of you journeying with me this Lenten season, thank you! We are 21 days into our journey. Tonight was a special night for me. At our youth group, we had a service that consisted of worship, a message, and an opportunity to nail a note to a cross.
For me, worship was awesome because it was the first time that my daughter and I led worship together, just the two of us. She’s been singing in church since she was five, but usually with other people. I am blessed beyond words to have three children following God who genuinely love to lead worship. I am amazed at His blessing – I know when I was their age, I was not as willing.
The service was held in a dimly lit room, and as Pastor Alec reminded us of the sacrifice Jesus made for us to have a way to be reconciled with God, behind him was a 2×4, hammers, nails, papers and pens. In the quietness of the dark room, we prayed and contemplated anything holding us back from completely surrendering to God. Then, as we were ready, we wrote that thought on the paper, folded it in half, and nailed it to the cross.
We sat in utter silence as the first boy quietly got up from his chair to nail his paper to his cross. The first strike of the hammer to the nail pierced the quietness in a hauntingly eerie way, and immediately my mind wandered to Jesus’ hands, being pierced by the first blow of the hammer. I’m not sure if it was by design, but that sound set the stage for preparing my heart to really think about the sacrifice made.
Sometimes I feel as though we go through these motions of Lent without pausing to truly reflect the gravity of the gift God gave us. As I hear that sound in my head, I am humbled that God would love me enough to provide a way to be with Him for eternity.
If you haven’t already, take some time to think about His gift. When you do, think about what sacrifice we can make back to Him to show we love Him, too.
Blessings,
SB
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