Today I remember
What you did for me,
Sacrificial love
nailed to a tree
Weeping
Daughters, Mothers, Brothers
all laid at your feet
Death brought forth
Anew, Reality
The cup was not taken
It had to be bared
So that in turn
My life could be spared
Faith
Challenged this heart
of stone
Love revealed,
Like no other
I'd ever known.
Broken down,
No where left to hide.
The light of a new day,
Once more revived.
~ C.M.Juleson
One of my favorite places in the world is a cemetary in Mercedes, TX.
Our Lady of Mercy Cemetary .
Some of the tombs have been in the ground since the early
1900's and though I've never known anyone, to whome the grounds are a final resting place, my adoration for the place has grown over the years.
The cemetary is sentimental to me for various reasons. It's a peaceful place where many conversations were shared with friends late at night or early morning hours. It was a place of refuge for a 19 year old girl who just wanted to go and sit and escape the realities of life. It served as a reminder that there was an end and eternity lay ahead with a big fat bolded
? mark on the end of it. It's a place that holds a great amount of love and emotion for me when I think of the time I shared within it's gates and is still dear to me when I'm able to visit.
The monument of Jesus on the cross is at the center of who I have become.
Out of all the people that I find myself relating to the most, it's the woman at the well in John 4: 1-40. I was a young woman who tried to fulfill my need to be loved. There's nothing in my past that I can change. I can't be anything else other than what I've been and who I am now. I feel that the woman at the well knew how much Jesus loved her despite the choices she had made in the past. People on the outside would always remember her for who she was, many would still hold it against her. She knew she was forever changed however the moment she met Jesus. Jesus accepted her for the way she was. Jesus adored and loved her.
It astounds me that it's taken me so many years to finally understand the message He wanted me to understand all those years ago while I rested at the feet of His monument: that we're all broken in many ways and not one is better than the other. It's amazing that a Perfect God who created everything in this universe wants a relationship with an utterly imperfect, hot mess, woman like me. He wants everybody.