He is the one

 After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. (Mark 15:20)

I see her every time I step into my office at church. She walks south, her back toward me, and I wonder if she still lives or if the child on her shoulders survived what I witnessed.

She ... is a Sudanese mother carrying her child. A dirty brown sack drapes across her back containing everything she owns.

I took the photo in the middle of a war as people fled along rutted dirt roads, running from certain death, carrying what they could, often falling exhausted along the way. The fortunate found succor from scattered relief workers or stronger refugees who gave what food and water they could. But tens of thousands were not so fortunate.

I see all of them in this one woman, who carries the most precious cargo of life on her shoulders, and seeing her ... I see Jesus and love him with tears that flow from my heart’s deepest room.

For Jesus, cloaked in the purple robes of royalty, walks with the poor, the beaten and forgotten, the oppressed and those denied all justice and mercy. He shares their struggle, carrying the weight of love even when it crushes him.

Here, here is our God, walking a Sudanese road, bearing the weight of love for all the burdened who stumble and fall along the way.

If there is one worth worshiping in this world, surely he is that one.

Pr. David L. Miller

We adore, O Christ, and we bless you.

By you holy cross you have redeemed the world