Holy Love In Barren Places

Where will love take us during this season of Lent? Love led Jesus to a wilderness - to a barren place where he faced the fullness of his humanity. He was hungry. He was tired. He was tested. Jesus' wilderness was the place of preparation for ministry. It was where he prepared to set out on his task of carrying God's love to the world.

Before he went into the wilderness, God marked Jesus as a beloved Son and affirmed Jesus' role in God's plan. Then the Spirit led him to the barren place. Barren places are hard places to be. They are dry, flat, and uncomfortable. While they may be places for preparation and purification, they aren't easy places to dwell. We sense from scripture that Jesus struggled and became weary, and then the devil himself shows up. In this barren space, Jesus learned the cost of surrendering to God's will.

The Spirit sometimes leads us to a barren place. We enter that place for our own time of purification and preparation. We do this because God also calls us "beloved." In these places, we allow God to hold us in love and pour out devotion upon our lives just as he did for Jesus.

Sometimes it is not the Spirit but circumstances that lead us to the wilderness. Our recent days have been marked with barrenness, and we have had to discern God's presence. We have endured a global pandemic, political division, and unrest. Our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and Russia are suffering under the reality of war. Fear, doubt, loneliness, and uncertainty surround us.

The work of Lent is to discover that even in the barren places we can be tempted and loved at the same time. We can discover that our thirst is only quenched by living water. The wilderness teaches us that hurting and hoping go hand in hand. This is what love does for us. This is how God's holy love becomes real for us.

The question for us is how will we allow the barren places to shape us. Will we give into the allure of a tempting rescue, or will we sit and wait on God? Will we accept that God has created us and accepts us in all of our humanity with a complete and unconditional love? Sit with God, and allow the holy love of God to remind you that you are God's beloved child.

Holy Love

With the dust of burned palm ashes upon our heads, we bear the sign of holy love. A love that is given without grudges or reluctance - love that is poured out, overflowing, and abundant. Love is where we begin.

As we enter Lent, we look upon the layers of our story with Christ. We remember the ways that Christ has stirred our imaginations and shaped our dreams. We come to be reminded that the barren places will give way to new growth, that grief will give way to hope, and that death will bring resurrection.

But before we reach that point, we must let this season of Lent open us to the places in our souls that need to experience the deep love of Christ. We must tend to the places that need healing. We must bury those things in us that need a resurrection.

Come into Lent and experience the deep and holy love of God.

You'll Be In My Heart

I felt like they would forever be little. Caitlyn and Chase, my daughter and son, came into the world and brought with them enough love and joy to last me a lifetime. I can remember sitting in my hospital bed after each of their births, holding them, and staring into their faces. The emotions of connection and love were overwhelming.

Almost exactly three years apart in age, this sister-brother combo filled our lives with their busyness and their fierce love for each other. Of course, there were also tears, fits, fights, and frustrations, but those were far outweighed by the joy of their young years.

I look at this picture of them, and I feel like that young girl and boy are still with me - and in many ways they are. A parent's remembrances and connections don't end when her children are grown. They still fill our lives with their busyness, and they still love each other fiercely, but Caitlyn and Chase have now grown into responsible adults.

On one recent winter weekend in south Georgia, the realization that my children have grown up was made evident. On that afternoon, beside a beautiful old oak tree, Chase proposed to his girlfriend, Ashlyn. With a sparkly ring in hand, the question was asked, and a squeal of delight sealed the deal. We are gaining a daughter, and my little boy is becoming a husband. My shy boy who used to talk to me with two pacifiers hanging out of his mouth is

going to be a groom. Be still my heart.

After the celebrations of the proposal had died down, and we had retreated to our hotel for the evening, Caitlyn and her husband Brennan said they had a present for us to open. Sitting on the hotel bed, I unwrapped a box that contained a small onesie that said, "first grandbaby." After a long period of waiting and hoping, their dream was coming true (so was ours). A baby is coming! With this announcement came more squeals and tears. Our little girl, who spent her days playing with dolls is about to have a real live doll of her own. She and Brennan are going to be the best parents. They have so much love to give this baby. Be still my heart.

Needless to say, I was on emotion overload. But there was joy! Finally, joy had come back into our lives after a period of deep heartache. These two beautiful children that Cass and I loved into adulthood are on their own journeys of building families of their own. It is the circle of life playing out right before our eyes.

I think that it is only natural to think back on your children's days of growing up when big things like this happen in their lives. When Caitlyn and Chase were little, one of my favorite times was our Friday nights together. That was the night we would head to Blockbuster to rent a movie (there was no Netflix or Hulu in those days). We would get out the sleeping bags and make a bed for them on the floor of our den and watch a movie together. The movies that were chosen were often Disney movies. One of my favorites was Tarzan. I could identify with Kala (the adoptive mother gorilla) who comforts Tarzan with a beautiful song. "You'll be in my heart...from this day on, now, and forevermore."

I can't listen to that song without tears. Every parent holds their child deep within their heart in a space that is occupied by only that child. Each milestone, each heartache, each remembrance is held there. I am so grateful to have had the privilege of parenting Caitlyn and Chase. As we enter this new territory of being family, we will still hold each other in love and walk this new road together. To them I say, you will always be those blonde-haired, blue-eyed babies that your father and I adored. And we will forever hold you in our hearts...from this day on, now, and forevermore.