A Lenten Prayer and Wish For You

Christians throughout the world started the period of Lent this past Wednesday with the distribution and reception of ashes. It is a forty-day period which emulates Jesus’ time He spent in the desert before His triumphant return to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

Today's Christians use this time as a period of reflection and prayer, making sacrifices of favorite things. Children generally give up candy or other sweets, adults may give up a favorite food or vice, and many may not eat meat on Fridays during this period.

With Palm Sunday, we remember the last days Jesus spent on earth, as He prepared for his Last Supper, eating his Passover meal the day prior, before He was cruelly beaten and then crucified on what we call Good Friday.

After He died, He was taken from the Cross and was placed in a borrowed tomb. He was anointed with myrrh and frankincense before He was wrapped in a burial cloth. Ironically, these all happened at His birth, as well.

According to scripture, at His birth, He was presented with frankincense and myrrh by the “men from the East”, after He was born in a borrowed cave and wrapped in a swaddling (burial) sheet.

What makes us Christians is that we believe He rose from His grave on Easter, three days later, and lived among His disciples for another forty days.

Ancient Jewish numerology places importance on both numbers, as they appears throughout both books.

I wish you a peaceful Lenten season, with health and happiness for you and your loved ones.