Friday, July 31, 2009

it breaks my heart

I was reading in Mark this morning when my heart was broken:

"They came to an area called Gethsemane. Jesus told his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, James, and John with him. He plunged into a sinkhole of dreadful agony. He told them, "I fell bad enough right now to die. Stay here and keep vigil with me." Going a little ahead, he fell to the ground and prayed for a way out: "Papa, Father, you can - can't you? - get me out of this. Take this cup away from me."

It reminded me of what I read this summer in The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning:

"The cross is both the symbol of our salvation and the pattern of our lives. Everything that happened to Christ in some way happens to us. When darkness envelopes us and we are deaf to everything except the shriek of our own pain, it helps to know that the Father is tracing in us the image of his Son, that the signature of Jesus is being stamped on our souls."

When I read this and remember the times in my own life when I was so hurt that all I could do was scream out to God and think that Jesus went through the same, maybe even worse, experience I am overwhelmed by his love for me.

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