Lent Forty "Get up and Walk"

 

First Steps by Pablo Picasso 
Yale University Art gallery

While I thought that I was learning to live, I have been learning how to die.                              

Leonardo Da Vinci, Notebooks, 1508- 1518

It can be argued that the greatest inequality in life, is the age at which we are likely to die.  People in poorer countries are less affected by pandemics, because the vulnerable have already been taken, by something else.  My early experience of being exposed to a clear threat to my life (they may be many others that I have not been so aware of) has been one of the greatest gifts I could possibly receive.  I find that I have no fear of death.  Without a fear of death, one is freed from many anxieties.  The snake without venom is much less scary that the one that can drain your life from you with one false move.  Tomorrow we celebrate the day when death lost it's sting forever.

Esther Chapter Four

As soon as Mordecai heard the decree he knew exactly what it was about.  He tore his clothes to shreds and went and sat by the city gates, inconsolable.  Queen Esther’s servants told Esther about what they had seen, and she send fresh clothes to Mordecai and instruction to find out what was distressing him.  Esther’s servant returned with a copy of Haman’s decree and explained that Mordecai knew that an innocent people were about to be exterminated.  Mordecai also asked Esther to plead for their lives before the King.  When Esther heard this, she was troubled.  She knew that even the Queen had no authority to speak to the King without a summons.  But Mordecai persisted.  “Surely if you do not say something, our people will be delivered by some other means.  You are likely to be safe in your palace, but I will not be.  Consider, perhaps you were made Queen for such a time as this?”  So Esther replied.  “Go and summons the faithful people to call on the Creator, and abstain from food.  I and my household will do the same.  Then I will see the King, and if this means death, well, so bit it.”  

PRAYER:  Courage is possible with you beside me.  I praise you for the freedom you give.