Wilderness

 Matthew 4:1-11

How do we make our way through the wilderness? Well really the first question is what do you picture when I say wilderness? Then how is life a wilderness sometimes? We all have times which we walk the wilderness: someone dies, we get a scary diagnosis, we lose a job, we come to an ending and don't know how to let go. We all go through these times. How do we make it through without sustenance, without knowing where or who we are?

First we have in the story, "after Jesus was baptized..." This is after Gods voice proclaims he is beloved by God. We are all marked in baptism as Christ's own forever. No matter where we go, what we decide in life, we can always turn and return to know we are beloved by God.

There are stories of this. Where someone has done a great wrong and reconciles with God. Decides to know their beloved and change their ways or to ask forgiveness before they die. The point is to know we are loved. This is the act of Ash Wednesday, we are dust and to dust we return. We rest in the knowledge we are not our own. We belong to God. 

In our own wilderness we can know we are loved. We are claimed. We have not been abandoned, even when it feels like we have been. We belong to God.

Second, know your scripture. We can make false things out of scripture, but they are also the food which feeds us or waters us in these hard times. Knowing a verse or two has helped those wrongly imprisoned to make it through their time. Sometimes they have felt God has deserted them. Then you think of a Psalm like "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me," and you know others have been in this space too. Or looking to the hills for help, and you can find hope in those words. Knowing the story only enriches our walk and our time here in the wilderness. It helps us to know we aren't deserted or alone.

Lastly let the Angels wait on you. You may not know it while you are in it, but people show up to offer help and be there to hold your hand. They are the angels who minister to you. We grow up with the myth we can make it on our own. Sometimes we refuse the help. The hardest thing is to receive this gift from others. It marks us though and helps us make it through. It gives us someone to lean on.

So as you journey and mark your own wilderness in Lent look around and notice what things have helped you. Take time to know the scripture so you can rest in it. And notice and angel when they arrive to help.