Its a matter of degrees.
I was listening to the radio last Sunday and the weather man said, “Monday, a high of 60 degrees. Tuesday, a high of 70 degrees. Wednesday, a 30 percent chance of snow.” I had to laugh. That is what it is to live in Nebraska in March.
Then we were chatting with a lady from Austin, Texas who was at the St. Benedict’s Retreat Center at the same time as my Covenant Community of Prayer and Service to the Poor group. She twanged in her southern drawl, “Those weather people lie. They say the high will be 70 degrees. But they don’t tell you that the high is only for ten minutes at 3:30 pm!” Then she asked, “Does the wind always blow like this?” And we said, “What wind?”
We have had one of the mildest winters in memory, but March still finds me yearning for spring. I know its out there somewhere. I know we’ll get it in spurts for the next 60 days or so before it settles in for two glorious weeks before Summer hits. But the weather gods need to know that I am ready for Spring now. I’ll even take a wet Spring as long as its a warm one. As far as I’m concerned we can just skip those two or three wet snow storms and one solid ice event that are prerequisites to the gap between winter and summer.
The church word “Lent” is from the Latin word for “lengthen,” as in “the lengthening of days.” It recognizes that painful transition time that is spring, no matter where you live. It is a time of storms and unexpected fast moving weather fronts. So Lent is 40 days of transition before opening the door to hope and sonlight on Easter Sunday.
Lent is lived by degrees. An “I’m sorry,” here. An “I wish I’d never done that,” there. Old baggage is let go of. New practices are picked up. All the time rolling on a downhill slope toward Easter, the next season in our relationship with God.
Grace & Peace,
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