Lent Devotions

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 08:12 AM PDT

Ephesians 2:4-6

Many people have a memory in their childhood when they first experienced a loss of innocence—the realization that people around them have acted in a way they never thought possible. For me, it was growing up hearing both my parents' stories of how their families survived and coped during and after World War II. Imagining being a refugee, leaving everyone and everything behind, and hearing their stories of loss, fear, and desperation—all this left a deep impression on my young mind.

We try to grasp why people are cruel and bad, but it's hard to understand. What is even harder to understand is why God still loves and saves us. How does God respond to his imperfect creation called humankind? God grants us special favor and sends us a gift—the Son of Man, someone to teach us and save us: his own son, Jesus Christ.

As a teenager, I experienced a profound loss when my mother lost her battle with cancer. In my hurt I turned away from God, angry that he took her from me and my younger siblings. Still, I liked to think of my mother as a guardian angel watching out for her children from her place in heaven, where I am sure she is. Looking back (especially now that I am a parent myself), I came to realize how much God was really in my life even while I turned away. So many wrong turns I could have taken but did not—and how much comfort I received whenever I pictured my mother with God.

Lent is the time to reflect on this greatest gift of all: God, rich in mercy and forgiveness, an always loving and patient parent who is always there, whenever we are ready to receive him. He gave us his Son, who made the ultimate sacrifice and returned, resurrected, to pass on the gift of forgiveness and life. God offers that we can be one with Christ, seated with him in heavenly realms and no longer doomed to earthly life ended by death but given the hope of an eternal life thereafter.

God, I am so thankful for your mercy and saving grace. Give me your divine guidance in my earthly life to make me worthy of being seated at the feet of your Son, Jesus Christ, where our souls are vessels of endless love and deep peace, where we understand everything we were unable to grasp with our humanly limited minds.

Regina Cummings, member of Marble Collegiate