Ash Wednesday

           So time is moving forward and tomorrow is the big day. Ash Wednesday, a day set aside to mourn our brokeness and to recognize our neediness. Setting in motion the steps that lead us to calvary and the miracle of life bursting out of death. Tomorrow is also the day Jonny undergoes surgery, a cutting away of diseased flesh to make room for healing. Over and again we have been made aware through this season that true healing and life can only come after the grief and the death.
       This is what we are longing for. We desire this in a very physical sense....that the pain and suffering after this surgery would lead to renewal and healing. We have also been longing that this suffering would not be wasted in us or through us. We want to be changed: for the old diseased self of fear, selfishness, anger, and all the manifestations of lack of love in our lives would be cut away making room for peace, long suffering and a muscular love that does not originate in ourselves.
     

   Not only is there mourning but there is a profound thankfulness awakening in me. Thankfulness for the doctors, the skill, the medicines, that make healing a real possibility. And thankfulness for a day like Ash Wednesday that promises whatever dies will live again when it is redeemed by a risen Savior.
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 I'm also grateful for a peaceful weekend with us all cozy at home as a family. We had talked of taking the kids away for the weekend but we decided the money would be better spent on a big lego set  and while we were at it we thought we might as well get some chicks