There is no beauty that we should desire it.

This is not snow. It is salt. Miles and miles and miles of salt. It is deep, and when it does rain, if you drive out onto it, you will sink into it. This is where I am currently sitting on my cross country bike ride. 3,203 miles. Whew.

Nobody wants this land. There is no beauty here. It's heartbreaking to look at. It's easily ignored. It's the land you are forced to drive through to get to the place you really want to be. Only the truly nasty plants can survive in this environment, and nothing thrives. This land is officially listed as "God forsaken". We drive through it, but we don't look at it. It is not one of the esteemed places on the planet. It is an aggrieved and sorrowful place. It is stricken with aridity and smitten with heat and cold. Only really pitiful people can look at it and see anything worthwhile and you'd have to be truly loony to live there.

Right?

Isaiah 53:1-4 says:

"Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."

Jesus grew up as a tender plant, just like the rest of us do. Though he was God, he was no different than we who struggle to gain a foothold in this life. He grew up as a root struggling to get nourishment and water. Just like us. He was not some powerfully good looking man who everyone just gravitated toward. He probably had some crooked teeth, and his beard was not full and perfect. His mates talked behind his back as did his brothers: "Who does Jesus think he is? The Messiah?! Please. The Messiah is going to be powerful, strong, attractive. He's going to wipe out our enemies. Sheesh."

They hated him just because he was good. A goody two shoes. They teased him and mocked him as he grew up. It says he grew in favor with God and man. But so do many of us and the world hates us for it. Suck ups, they call us. True, there are real ones of those. But the world hates people who try to be good and in favor with God. He was rejected by the worldly.

He was acquainted with sorrow and grief. Bad things happened to him in his life and yet he was faithful and obedient. He forged ahead when things got dark. Even when his half brothers turned against him, he was faithful to his Father. He was respectful to his step father and his mother. He was a true friend.

When things got tough for him, people turned away. Those who should have been his friends turned away and deserted him. At one point he asked his disciples, "Will you also leave me?" They stayed, but each had his own reason for leaving at some point before he returned to him.

When the world turned on him, those who should have been loyal, did not speak up. They let the world despise and mock him. A few men stood up for him. John was at his cross, with his mother Mary. Many women followed him as he bore his cross to Calvary. Many women stood at his feet and wept. Brave women.

Last, he was so downtrodden that people said, "Nobody gets this much crap out of life. God must hate this man. He is God forsaken."

On the cross, in his last breaths, he finally felt totally alone and even the Father had to turn away his help so that the Savior of the world could understand our plight when we feel God forsaken. He wailed, "My God, my God! Why hast THOU forsaken me?" I put that emphasis on THOU. I can feel him wondering at the sorrow and misery he must have felt as he was left alone to atone and suffer. He finally had all his help from God the Father withdrawn so that he could truly know what we feel like when we have estranged ourselves from God through sin. And in his agony, he felt abandoned. He felt that all his friends had deserted him. He perhaps lost sight, as mortals are wont, of the few that truly love and care for him, in his case his mother and the disciple whom he loved, standing there at his feet weeping. And in his desperation, he cried out in a prayer to his Father, wondering why, of all people, He had left him, too.

Have you ever wondered if God has left you alone?
Have you felt so alone, that you just KNEW that Jesus was no where near?
That perhaps he had stopped loving you and just didn't care any more?

What kind of God does that? No god, but a devil would.
To say that God has abandoned us or left us alone, is to accuse him of deviltry.

When we feel alone, it's because we have stopped being obedient, and the Holy Ghost is aggrieved with our behavior and leaves us. Then we feel the weight of the world pressing down on our hearts and blackening our minds.

Just go pray until you feel him again. You have to make yourself right. Can you imagine having a child or grandchild who did a naughty thing, and feels horrible about it, but who will not approach you to ask forgiveness? Instead he will punish himself brutally and not return to you. Wouldn't you and I try to reach out to him and bring him in to our breasts to let him know of our love for him?

Today, right now, I feel Heavenly Father reaching out. Next week, who knows? That is why I have people close to me, at the foot of MY cross, weeping and loving me.

I wanted God to remove MY cross which I bear, and he refused my fervent prayer. I understand his answer and accept it.

I love you guys. Thank you for helping me be closer to our Father and His Son.