A year or so ago Paulette and I joined the modern age and bought smartphones. She didn’t mean to, but the bright, young clerk made us feel our age when she looked at our old phones and said, “Wow! Antiques!” Paulette has learned to love hers; she especially likes the camera. She’s always taking pictures, and not just one; usually she’ll take a lot at a time, trying for the perfect composition. Thank goodness we no longer have to buy film, and the electrons are free. We’ve had some beautiful sunsets behind our house, and one night Paulette took about thirty pictures. I’ve inserted one below.
 

Back Yard Sunset

 It must be the mathematics in me, but I admit that I am something of a skeptic. I’ve never understood how people on eBay will buy a piece of toast with the toasting looking like the Virgin Mary. Or why people will try to sell a potato chip with the face of Jesus on it. I don’t even see the point of all the studies of the Shroud of Turin or other Christian relics. Maybe I’m being a little hard on the idea, because I wouldn’t mind having a baseball signed by Babe Ruth, but to me, even if it were signed by Jesus, it would just be a baseball. I’m not completely alone in this view; Martin Luther considered Christian relics nonsense, even though his protector, Fredrick the Wise, had collected thousands. Nevertheless, I think the above picture has special meaning this Lenten season. If you look carefully, you can see a glowing cross just slightly to the left of the center. Of the thirty or so pictures Paulette took that evening, all within a span of a few minutes, it is the only one in which the cross can be seen. Is it a special sign from God? Probably not. But I do think that seeing it and then thinking about the sacrifice it represents helps me to prepare for Good Friday and Easter. To reflect some more on Jesus and the cross read Mark 15:21-32, and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Jim

Today’s reading: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+15%3A21-32