\n\n\u201cWe might expect the long-awaited Messiah to greet his new followers like the kings before him have\u2014with a pompous coronation, with hunger to exert power and control over his populus. Instead, Jesus steps in line along the river\u2019s edge, blending in with the crowds, joining in solidarity with those around him. Jesus doesn\u2019t demand any attention, but as soon as the water washes over him, creation is summoned to celebrate. I imagine him wading into the waters and leaning back to receive the blessing that falls upon him like rain: \u2018You are my beloved. I delight in you.\u2019\u201d
\u2014 from the artist statement for \u201cI Delight in You\u201d by Lisle Gwynn Garrity | @sanctifiedart\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWe might expect the long-awaited Messiah to greet his new followers like the kings before him have\u2014with a pompous coronation, with hunger to exert power and control over his populus. Instead, Jesus steps in line along the river\u2019s edge, blending in with the crowds, joining in solidarity with those around him. Jesus doesn\u2019t demand any…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lent"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/3e76e2eb.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9IoBI-Hc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2680,"href":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions\/2680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmattspringfield.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}