Looking at my circumstances last night, I get a tiny glimpse at one of the "hows."
By the grace of God, I came to prayer - at the computer screen. I decided that seeing stations of the Cross in pictures would help me focus on Christ instead of on my own little "miseries," so I went to Prie Dieu and clicked on the stations.
And there it was. A picture of Our Lord looking right "at me," and on His shoulder was the Cross.
Hurting in my own left shoulder, across the upper back where Jesus would have felt the weight, I thought in a whole new way of His walk to Calvary. I'd meditated on various aspects of the Passion during my life, but never on the actual carrying of the Cross. Last night's realization of that kind of pain was, I believe, pure gift.
I saw Him fall, I imagined His acute agony, and suddenly my little ache was nothing. Compared to His Cross, my discomfort was less than a splinter. A tiny thorn I could offer Him in thanksgiving and intercession.
I said I'd let you know how things went, and this was the essence of it. I received a gift of love from God. A gift I wouldn't have unwrapped had I chosen not to spend that time in prayer.
God makes ALL things work together for the GOOD of those who love Him.
That is the truth of it. That is the view through the grille.
Lorenzo Lotto painting
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