This Sunday at Holston View United Methodist Church, we will hear Mark 13:1-8, where Jesus foretells the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Roman Empire. In this passage, Jesus is straightforward about what would happen.

There are other passages, however, where his pain regarding the future of Jerusalem is evident. In Matthew 23:37, he says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” In Luke 19:41, we are told Jesus at one point wept over the city.

In 1892, the artist Enrique Simonet imagined this emotional moment.

Lord, like chicks who know their mother, may we in faith huddle beneath your wings. Amen.