We are a couple of weeks into our lenten journey, and we may feel weary, dry, thirsty, and desperate. You may even be cursing this whole lent thing and giving up on it. Take heart because if we persist it’s possible we’ll see the Lord making provision for us in mysterious and tangible ways.

One of Sunday’s lessons describes the Israelite's journey out of Egypt into the wilderness. There, in the middle of the Sinai desert, they realized they had no resources to sustain life - they were thirsty and scared for their lives. So they contended with Moses. Apparently the situation got pretty tense because Moses cried out to God saying, “They are almost ready to stone me” (Exod 17:4).

Then God gives Moses some specific instructions. “Go before this people and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand the rod with which you struck the river and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it so the people may drink” (5-6).

So God provided for his people in their deep and desperate need. And he did so in a mysterious, sacramental kind of way. St. Paul tells us that the rock that Moses struck was Christ who had been with Israel in the desert. And though the rock flowed like a fountain, it was still a rock. This phenomenon is rather like the mystery of Christ’s presence in the Bread and Wine at Holy Communion as they become his Body and Blood. They are still bread and wine, but by a mystery, because Christ is with us, they are the Body and Blood.

I pray God is your provision this lent. And I pray especially that as we partake of the eucharistic feast each Sunday this wilderness season, you will receive the Body of Christ and drink his Blood with glad and thankful hearts knowing He goes with us in the desert.

Together in Lent,
Jay+