Lenten Photo a Day Challenge - Day 17: Stations

Today's word is "stations."  When I was a kid, we often attended the stations of the cross with my grandma. I remember moving from station to station - really plaques on the wall depicting the various stages of Jesus' trial and journey to his death on the cross - and feeling very solemn.  Sometimes incense burned and a hazy cloud encircled us, adding to the somber mood.  I haven't practiced this tradition in many, many years...or have I?

Oftentimes, but especially during this season of Lent, I find myself contemplating the sacrifices of Jesus.  The mental and physical and emotional pain He endured - for me (and you, too).  This human suffering makes my Jesus a close and empathetic friend when I am suffering.  He knows pain.  He isn't just some high-above-humanity kind of god that looks down on us from a distance.  He does not want distance.  God, in Jesus, came down to us and suffered for us to remove that distance.  He knows pain.  He knows me and loves me with a greater love than I can fathom.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10.  Thanks be to God!