Stephen Cottrell points us to the gathering gloom behind Jesus (p63), and reminds us, God does his greatest deeds in darkness and unknowing:

Indeed, Christ’s Passion and death are an encounter the darkness of the world (p64)

I don’t know about you, but I’m glad God in Jesus knows about the darkness, has been there, experienced it – and done his work in it.  What an awesome God, that he didn’t avoid the darkness, but he has been in the depths of it.  He knows what it is like to be there.  That makes him a God who really understands life and all it throws at us.

God is not just God of the sunshine, but God of the deep darkness too.

Jesus not only knew the darkness, he brought the light that only he can bring – by being there, by sitting with it, by returning from it.

Christ may I know you in my darkness in my darkness. Bring me through to resurrection I pray.

These thoughts are reflecting on Spencer’s painting The Scorpion (seen here at the bottom of the second page).

This year for Lent, I am reading Christ in the Wilderness by Bishop Stephen Cottrell, published by SPCK, reflecting on Stanley Spencer’s paintings of that title.

I’m not necessarily going to blog every day on it, just when something leaps out at me – and they will be thoughts rather than full blog posts