Holy Saturday: Last Day in the Desert

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,

God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…"

GN 1:1, 26-31A

Sometimes I forget who I am, who I belong to, who created me. In my most connected and confident moments I can loudly declare that I am a Beloved; That God is my loving Father and Jesus is my number one Companion. However, I've just spent the past 39 days in the desert. The wind has blown sandstorms. My vision has been blurred. I've had to close my eyes at times. The horizon has been filled with countless dunes that all look the same. 

"Haven't I been here before?" I've found myself asking this out loud. "Is there a reason why I am here again? Lord, please show me something to help me understand, to discover something new, to heal more deeply, to show me perspective."

I've fumbled and stumbled my way forward. Or at least that is the direction I think I've moved in. And in the midst of all this disorientation, at times I have forgotten who I am. Not on purpose, but as a consequence of being attentive to this journey in what can be such a desolate place. Perhaps this is all by Greater Design.

But today's reading, the creation story, re-centers and grounds me. 

Do you know who you are?

A question lovingly asked of me during this Lenten Season during a particularly blinding day in the desert. It caused me to halt. I am God's Beloved. So loved that He sent His only Son to reside with us, guide us, teach us, and LOVE us. To die on a cross for us. And tomorrow, to rise and show His fidelity to us; That not even death, whether literal or the figurative deaths and darkness we can succumb to while in the desert, not even death can separate us. Death and darkness do not have dominion over us. Death and darkness cannot break our Communion with God.

Do you know who you are?

I am a Beloved. Even in the desert. And I was lovingly made in the likeness of God.

Lord, please help me to spend one more day being attentive to the desert; To the darkness and deaths in my life, so that I may prepare to partake in new life and light with Jesus tomorrow.

Reflected by Rae Visita