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Lent marks the forty days leading up to Easter, mirroring the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness. It is a practice that began during the fourth century as a way to prepare Christians for the holiest days of the year.

To observe Lent is to prepare for loss. We will hear in Scripture the story of a man, once active and strong enough to stride the length of the Holy Land, suddenly deprived of his freedom and friends and now rejected and despised, esteemed not. During the season of Lent we will embark on a walk for the next six weeks that will end on Golgotha, where an innocent man in the midst of his agony will cry out because he believes his Father has forgotten him.

Lent is our annual rehearsal of the cosmic moment when Jesus’ suffering and death and resurrection will change how we experience death. Death will not be the defining truth about us. Someday we will be freed from the gorgeous and horrible limitations of our human lives, and we will live forever with God. But first Jesus suffers and dies. We walk with him. And he walks with us.