2 Weeks

Can you believe it is almost 2 Weeks until Easter?

The most important holiday in the Christian faith!  Easter tells the story of WHY we believe the way we do :-)

For the next 2 weeks, I'm going to share a pilgrimage I made ..... and tell a story.  You know the story already... the story of Jesus' trip to the cross.. his resurrection.

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina.  There is a park there, Jockey's Ridge, which has a nature trail through a HUGE sand dune.  I have been trying to do the nature walk for a couple of years but I can never get anyone in my family to go with me.... so I haven't done it.

But THIS trip, I was on my own for a couple of days... so I decided to make it happen!  And then a friend joined me.. and that made it all the more meaningful :-)

My friend was tickled with the idea because she likes to walk too.... and it was a beautiful day... so we set out to walk.  It was sunny and warm.... and there were quite a few other people there too.

Surprising for an off-season weekday, I thought.  We walked and talked and stopped at each of the markers... took a few photos... and went on back to the condo and had a super visit just catching up.

But something stuck with me and was percolating in the back of my brain.... the landscape was so desolate... like a desert.  It reminded me a little of pictures I have seen of the middle east.  And, then, late that night, it hit me...  if I led a youth group in the Outer Banks, I would use this place as a pilgrimage about Jesus' trip to the cross.   There is a devotion called the Stations of the Cross that marks several stops along the road to Calvary.

And it so happens that, like this nature trail, the traditional devotion uses 14 stops.  There is a bit of controversy about this devotion and its lack of historical accuracy.  I don't want to get all involved in that - I would like to use it as it is intended... as a way to remember what Jesus chose to do for us.

And so it happened that my friend and I got up early the next day so that we could be at the park when it opened.. and we meditated on those stops as we walked that trail a second time.

This is what I'd like to share.  That little window of an hour or so.... before we left each other and went back to our lives.

We set out without breakfast and were there when they opened the gates just before 8 am.  It was a bit cloudy, threatening rain.  It was chilly and the sand was cold.  I went barefoot.  It became a sacred journey.

Over the course of the next two weeks, I will post a meditation each day about one of the 14 stops along the way.  My hope is that we can capture together a bit of that sacred space and reflect on the tremendous journey Jesus undertook for us.

Dear Jesus,

       We know you walk with us and we are never left alone.... Just as you were not truly alone that terrible day when your world came crashing down around you.  Be with us now as we remember what you did for us and how much you love us.

Amen!