Which friend do you call when you are going through a crisis moment? Someone you trust who knows your pain by experience and shares their wisdom and peace.Once a daughter struggled with a terrible conflict with her mother. Her mother had been dead for several years. This daughter prayed for her heart to soften. She prayed that she be able to forgive her mom and love her for what she did give her: life, values, a lot of piano lessons, and the best she could do. Unfortunately, the best she could do was terrible…and her heart remained hardened toward her mom for many years.
For the first two years after her death, her mother’s ashes sat in her closet. This young woman moved them one day at last to a corner of the living room--a small thing? No, A huge thing. Jesus understands that things like forgiving your mother take a long time. If not your parent, then perhaps your former spouse, your boss, your child, or even God after your best friends have died in a plane crash.
I don’t think Jesus was rolling his eyes impatiently at this daughter while she had her mother’s ashes in the closet. I don’t think much surprises Jesus. This is how we make important changes—barely, poorly, and slowly. And still, he raises his hands in triumph. We need such lived wisdom from those wounded by life’s experience. And from those who have known pain.
There was once an ancient temple bell famous for its beautiful tone. It had been commissioned by the king as a way of showing his people’s devotion to Buddha; for the king’s advisors believed that making a temple bell would keep the nation safe from foreign invasion. So the king approached the greatest bell maker in the realm. This craftsman worked hard and produced many bells, but none that was extraordinary, none that had a special tone.
Finally, he went to the king and told him that the only way to get the kind of bell he wanted was to sacrifice a young child. So the soldiers fetch a young girl. When the child was taken away, her mother cried out piteously, Emille.
At last the bell maker succeeded, the bell, called the Emille Bell, made a sound more beautiful than any other. When it rang. Most people praised the art that had produced such a beautiful sound. But whenever the mother whose child had been sacrificed heard it, her heart broke anew. She could only hear the beautiful tone with pain.
You see, only those who understand the sacrifice can feel the pain. Others just enjoy the sound.
God prays for us as we reflect: “May he remember all your sacrifices…” (Psalm 20:3).
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that in times of trouble they find friends who have lived the pain and hold the wisdom to help them find patience and perseverance in their suffering.
May we pray for guidance from the spirit who “softens our hearts” and finds peace during this Lenten Season.
