Watercolor Wednesday: Time in the desert

We’re nearly halfway through the season of Lent. By now – day 22 of 47, if you include Sundays – we might start to grow weary. We might have fallen behind in any Lent reading that we embraced on Ash Wednesday, the guilt piling up each day as we wonder how long this season will go on. We might just be tired.

I love this painting of my dad’s – it’s one I’ve framed and have near my desk, so I can pause to look at it. I see Jesus in the desert, being tempted by Satan, enduring every hardship conceivable that humans might experience. The desert is a lonely place; a place of noxious wild animals; a place of burning heat in the day and chilling cold at night.

Jesus made it through his forty days in the desert, and afterwards, he was hungry. We might not be fasting or observing Lent, but we can remember how Jesus endured these trials on our behalf. He is with us in the desert.