It’s coming up on my favorite time of year! I absolutely adore the season of Lent. It’s a season of waiting, a season of slowing down, and a season of refocusing on the spiritual. For me, Lent always hits at just the right time. Now that the Christmas and New Years holidays are over, we are left to face the rest of the long winter. Lent moves us towards the springtime.
It can be difficult, in the middle of winter, to remember that life begins again every year. The flowers are resting under the ground, waiting to bloom. The birds are wintering down south, waiting to return home. The trees are bare, waiting for their moment to dress themselves in the colors of spring. Lent is that holy period of awaiting new life when that life is nearly impossible to picture. All creation enters into this time of holy waiting.
At IMPACT, our theme for the yer is exploring the image of God, and what that means for us. When we say that we were all created in God’s image, who does that include? I tend to believe that humanity does not have a monopoly on the image of God. I see God’s image infused in all aspects of the created world. Nature reflects God’s image back to us in ways that are surprising, terrifying, delightful–ask any youth who went on the wilderness confirmation trip and they can tell you this truth. This year, I am looking to the natural world around me to teach me about Lent. God teaches and reteaches the story of Jesus’ resurrection and renewal each year with the coming of spring, and this year I intend to fully tune in.
As you enter this season of Lent, I hope that you can watch and listen for God reflected in the world around you. I pray that you can tune in to your own self as a natural creature, made in the image of the divine. Perhaps the most radical Lenten commitment we can make is to give up the worldly expectations that would have us go, go, go and instead focus on re-adapting to our natural rhythms. Rest when your body needs rest, eat when your body needs to eat. Admire the divinity constantly unfolding around you and wait with the rest of creation for the coming of the spring.