I got my love of reading from my mom. Growing up each night before bed, we would read together. Usually for about 30 minutes we dove into a story together, each taking turns reading. I traveled in a covered wagon out west with the Ingalls family or imagined going on adventures together with Anne Shirley. It was one of the happiest memories from my childhood. It gave me a love for words, books, and developed my imagination.
One of my favorite types of books to read with my mom were the Nancy Drew Mystery series. My mom loved them as a little girl, and very quickly I discovered how much I loved the adventures of Nancy and her friends Bess, George, and her boyfriend Ned. My imagination came alive and I felt I was in the story with them. There were many nights where I stayed up past my bedtime to finish a book with the book light that attached to my headboard.
I entered into the mystery. I became one with the story.
Today we begin to embark upon the most sacred of weeks (Holy Week) in the Christian faith.
We remember and relive the great mystery of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ - our savior, brother, friend, and God.
While the chaos of a broken, weary world noisily swirls around us, this week time stops in a different way.
Time stops.
We go back to the moment and have an opportunity to relive all Jesus will encounter and endure this week as if we are watching it with our own eyes.
We hear the joyous cries of a crowd welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem on a bright, sunny day.
We take and eat of the Passover meal, trying to make sense of what Jesus is sharing with us about what will happen to him.
We fall asleep in Gethsemane with Peter.
We watch our best friend be beaten, humiliated, and tortured beyond recognition.
We watch him struggle the instrument of his own death to the site where he will be publicly killed.
We watch his mother bury her only child.
The divine encounter for each of us in this holy week is an opportunity to more deeply enter into what Jesus will endure for love of you and I. Perhaps in a new way. Perhaps for the first time in your life.
Do not treat these next days casually. What will happen and unfold in this next week changes all of human history, it changes forever our relationship with God.
Enter into the mystery.