Welcome back to We Wonder: Lent.

This is the fourth week of Lent: we are right at the halfway point of the season. If we turn around and look backward, we can see Jesus beginning to teach his friends about what is going to happen to him. If we look forward, down the road, we can see the city of Jerusalem rising up on its hill, and maybe, just beyond it, a cross.

For the next three weeks, we will continue to walk with Jesus, step by step, to his road’s end. We will listen to the account of that journey from Matthew’s gospel. And as we do, we will keep listening to Jesus’s words and imagine that we are there with him: that he is speaking directly to us. And we will continue to pay attention, each day, to what we see, and hear, and feel. It will be our way of keeping company with Jesus.

I hope that you can listen every day this week, and let these words take deep root in your heart. I hope that you can hear Jesus speaking to you, and coming close to you, every day, no matter what your week is like.

This week’s reading is from the gospel of Matthew, chapter 19, verses 13 through 26. Jesus and his friends have traveled out of Galilee, which is their home, and across the Jordan River into Judea. As they go, crowds follow him, religious leaders test him, and people ask him questions. Everyone wants to see Jesus, and hear what he will say next. Let’s join him on the road.