Lent 2025 started March 5^th and continued for the next six weeks, ending April 17^th  (Holy Thursday for Catholics) and April 19^th (the day before Easter) for other Christians.

Lent is a special time for all Christians.  It’s a time of repentance, of denying oneself something significant to honor Jesus’s spending forty days in the desert, facing temptation and preparing for what was to come. Before it was over, among other things, He would be ridiculed, falsely accused, betrayed, beaten, abused, arrested and convicted and crucified.

The entire season is significant, but Holy Week is the most reverent, the most widely known and celebrated. Each day marks its remembrance of Jesus Christ as He related to a specific event that occurred.

• Palm Sunday: The day Jesus Christ knowingly entered Jerusalem on a donkey to fulfill His destiny and seal His fate.

• Monday: The day Jesus Christ, armed with a whip, cleared the temple of those disrespecting God.

• Tuesday: The day Jesus Christ, anointed with oil, preached a sermon on the Mount of Olives.  It was here that He was recognized and glorified as the long-awaited Messiah. (Luke 19:29-38)

• Wednesday: The difficult day for Jesus Christ as He suffered betrayal at the hands of Judas.  Jesus offered eternal life and was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver—an event so horrific that Judas, facing what he had done to Jesus, hanged himself.

• Thursday: The day Jesus Christ celebrated the Last Supper with the Apostles, spoke to them of the coming betrayals, and of His coming departure.  Afterward, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed.  It was there that He was arrested.

• Good Friday: The day Jesus Christ was sentenced to die, was crucified (hung on the cross) and died. He was the light of the world, and before He died, he asked God, the Father, to forgive the people who had wronged Him.  “They know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34).  On His passing, the earth went dark “from the sixth hour unto the ninth hour.” (Matthew 27:45)  That has been validated by the historian Thallus.  Indeed, the light had departed the world.

• Holy Saturday: The day Jesus Christ was buried in a tomb and descended into hell.

• Easter Sunday: the glorious day that Jesus Christ arose from the dead.  He first appeared to women, who were instructed to inform the Apostles, and they did.  This is the most holy day for Christians.  The gracious and magnificent light of the world returned!

Jesus suffered and endured for us.  He was the perfect lamb, the healer, the wonderful counselor, the prince of peace.  He took on the sins of the world that we might be saved.  For us, He conquered hell and arose—that we might be spared and know the truth.  Our battle is won.  He fought it for us.  And gifted it to us.

Every day is a gift from God, and we are grateful for it.  But Lent… Oh, Lent is beyond special.  The magnanimity of His sacrifice is so powerful, so awe-inspiring and humbling, that we think of it, and often are so moved and overwhelmed, we end up speechless and in tears.

In sorrow, for what He endured.  At what we human beings did to Him.  In joy, hearts overflowing at the treasure He imparted to us all, and in gratitude that He so blessed us with His enduring love.

I’m a simple, average woman.  When it comes to faith, I think in simple terms.  Real ones, I can relate to and not only reason through, but emotionally respond to heart-to-heart.

Imagine with me for just a moment.  God sending His son to us, knowing all that would occur. Every wrong.  Every wound.  Every scar.  Every choice people made.  Every-single-thing.  God knowing it, and yet loving all of us so much that He refused to abandon us.  God, holy and pure, cannot abide with sin.  But He was so devoted to us that He built us a bridge back to Him.  That bridge is His son, Jesus Christ.

And imagine Jesus Christ, coming to us, knowing what would occur, and how it would end, the personal price He would pay to be our bridge, to wash us clean as snow so we could return to God through Him.  Just imagine…

Fortunately (for us), Jesus also knew that the end was the beginning.  He, and by grace, we could walk the bridge to move from life to eternal life.

Ours is an awesome God.  King of Kings, Lord of Lords.  Hallelujah!

Blessings to you and yours this Lent and always,

Vicki