It’s Monday morning, we’re back home, and – if I don’t leave town over the next three days – I will have spent exactly 9 days in Wake Forest during the month of April!

Interestingly, this month has also seen a record number of views at this blog. As of this morning Life, Gratitude, Faith, & Passion has 1,235 “followers,” plus (on average) an additional 350 views per day.

Maybe my travel photos are the explanation for attracting all those hits? If so, that’s OK, because great pictures do help to frame a story, and April has been full of some good ones (just scroll back through the month if this is your first visit).

SUNDAY MORNING, after we’d packed up the beach house, Rebekah and I worshipped at First Presbyterian Church of Morehead City. We were hoping our old friend, Tim Havlicek, would be preaching, and we were not disappointed.

Tim’s message was spot on, and brought the week after Easter into clear focus. He talked about “wounds,” focusing not only on the wounds Christ voluntarily received, but about the fact that Christ still wore those wounds after the resurrection.

We, human beings living in a broken world, are the walking wounded. Christ’s word is, “Look, I’m carrying wounds too; and – if you’re willing – I’ll carry yours.”

The work of The Cross is ongoing. The invitation is – always – to allow Jesus to carry our wounds.

At church yesterday morning in Morehead City, Tim invited members of the congregation to write something about their wounds on a piece of red paper, to come forward during the offering, to pick up a long, heavy-duty, nail from the front pew, to drive that nail through the paper, and to throw (not place, but pretty-much hurl) the wound onto the linen cloth, covering wooden boards from a cross, at the front of the church.

The response was moving. The sound of the nails hitting the wood created an uneven, staccato, redemptive rhythm over the five minutes or so it took the congregation to walk to the front of the church and to respond to Jesus.

The invitation is still open. Some of our wounds are deep; some are fresh; some seem, to us, too personal. But Jesus is willing to carry them still.

Peace, Promise, and Gratitude – DEREK