Today’s reading in “Bread and Wine” comes from Wenedell Berry’s novel, Jayber Crow, and is Crow’s reflection on the suffering of Christ on the cross. Jayber, a barber from the fictional town of Port William, Kentucky, questions why Christ bled on a cross and died instead of showing the full extent of his Divine power. Crow knows the answer, admittedly most of us do. Christ’s power rest in His sacrifice, His purchase of our salvation, and His identity with the lowliest of people. Therefore, in Jayber’s words, “Those who wish to see him must see him in the poor, the hungry, the hurt, the wordless creatures, the groaning and travailing beautiful world.” That’s the line the gets me, “the groaning and travailing beautiful world.” The book of Romans speaks of the groaning of a waiting world and our own groans that only the Holy Spirit can translate. In the midst of those groans both corporate and personal, in the midst of a deplorable death, there is magnificent beauty. We know that to find God we have to look in the lowly, helpless places of this world yet we are not always willing to really look. May today be different.