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The beauty of Lent is the demonstration of God’s presence in all circumstances.

The beauty of the cross is the proof that God is with us.

Wherever you are, whatever your cross is today, God is with you.

Emmanuel. God with us.

From Advent to Lent, God stepped into His world and submitted to the same rules we must follow.

Whatever the reason we all suffer, whatever the purpose, we cannot say that God did not play fair by asking us to be subject to something He was not willing to experience.

Are you broken? Jesus is broken with you.

Are you lonely? Jesus was despised and rejected by men.

Are you betrayed by your closest loved ones? Jesus, too, was betrayed by those He loved.

Does grief seem your closest and most constant companion? Jesus grieved and wept over those who would not accept Him.

In the words of Corrie ten Boom from the hell of a Nazi concentration camp: No matter how deep our darkness, he is deeper still.

When it feels as though life is beating you into the ground, when the weight of your burden does not allow you to rise from your bed in the morning, when you cannot carry your cross for one more step, you can know that He is here with you, carrying your cross with you, taking your burden on Himself.

Every tear we shed becomes His tear. He may not yet wipe them away, but He makes them His. Would we rather have our own dry eyes, or His tear-filled ones?

He came to us. He is here with us. We can be certain of Emmanuel in all circumstances.

If He does not heal all our broken bones and loves and lives now, He comes into them and is broken, like bread, and we are nourished.

Be nourished by the bread of life and know that He is with you.

Peace to you.

Final two quotes and many of the thoughts in this post are by Peter Kreeft in Bread and Wine

All photographs are copyrighted by Made Sacred, 2017.