Letter #8: A New Year

Dear sister, 

My first time receiving communion after my world fell apart, I heard these familiar words from the pastor:  “ On the night Jesus was betrayed, He lifted up the bread and broke it…” 

Wait, did he just use the word BETRAYED?  How had I missed it all these years? 30 pieces of silver? The cock crowing. Peter denying him. That’s right ~ his closest friends and inner circle slept when he asked them to pray, and then they took off at his greatest point of need. He was abandoned and left to die alone. 

I was blown away. He fully experienced  betrayal from the people He loved the most. He resonates with agony. He is God and Man at once with absolute understanding and perfect empathy! 

Listen to these words from Eugene Peterson in his introduction to the book of Job: “He is the Creator of the unfathomable universe all around us — and he is also the Creator of the universe inside of us. And so we gain hope —not from the darkness of our suffering, not from pat answers in books, but from the God who sees our suffering and shares our pain.”

Don’t we all long for that? All of His goodness and shared understanding lighting our path and protecting us while we sit in what feels like death? This is who Jesus is. He hears us. He is constantly with us. He’s asking us to trust Him for each next step, assuring us that He will provide maybe not what we want but what we most desperately need.

Sending love and hope for this new year,

Your sister on the journey 

Hebrews 5 :7 - While he lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God, God answered him. Though he was God's son, he learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do. 

Hebrews 4:14-16 - Now we know that we have — Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—but not the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.