Surrender and Sacrifice

Canon 5D Mark ll, 100mm 2.8 macro, 3.5 aperture, 1/125 shutter, 100 ISO. (The blue and white in the background is a prayer shawl with the royal colors of a priest.)

He walks in grief so heavy that even truest friends cannot bear it, as they fall asleep under its weight. He walks alone into the garden one more time to pray. The garden receives him, bursting in blooms for the one who fashioned each petal – whispered each color. All is quiet except for his sighing, his beating heart. He asks openly, earnestly of His Father. “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.” He is bending, bowing. Believing.

Anguish overwhelms Him. He knows what lies ahead. It is why he came, why he put on this flesh, made from dust and the breath of the living God. It is why He lived among us, taught us, healed us, fed us, loved us. He came to die — for us.

The sorrow is so great now he writhes in supplication.  His brow is beaded with sweat mixed with blood. Crimson seeps from his very pores as he moves from sorrow to surrender. He sets his face like flint and rises to gather the friends who slumber.

The flowers wear the marks of his pain, as blood and sweat mingle down petals and stems. They weep. They remember. There is a redeemer. He has decided.

Luke 22:44,45 ~”And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.”

Hebrews 12:2 ~”fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”