“The purpose of a pilgrimage is about setting aside a long period of time in which the only focus is to be the matters of the soul. Many believe a pilgrimage is about going away but it isn’t; it is about coming home.”
L.M. Browning
The curtain of Lent is closing as we draw ever nearer to the mountain-stairs of Holy Week, fragrant with cedar, and the climb to Good Friday, the inhaled breath of Vigil Saturday, and the eventual joyful tumble of Easter.
But that is not yet.
For now, we have our last days of Lent to contend with. We have traveled far, following our pilgrim Lord through the strange springtime wilderness of the turning earth and our own fertile souls. Our Lord, who is a desert wanderer Himself, has brought us safely through. We may be a bit broken in ways we did not expect, but in any brokenness there is honesty, and a well-worn wisdom.
Shortly we will leave Lent behind us, because seasons must shift; it is their nature. The spring will grow older and we will call her summer. Days will pass. We will take breaths, and we will leave them behind. Thousands of them. We will change.
But the Lord God does not change. The beauty of this story—the pilgrimage of Lent, all the way through to the mountain-trembling glory of Easter—is that no matter where or who we are when we hear it, Creator-God does not change. He takes our hand, leads us through His story, and it is we who emerge, changed. Renewed. Reborn.
Who were you when this journey began?
Who are you, now, coming home?
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