Keep watch over the snow as the mass
safeguarding both countryside and waters
shrinks away with the sunshine of each day.
As spring emerges, note the fragile slips
of daffodils and tulips, crocus, and grape
hyacinths promising to grace earth with blooms.
Echo the caws of the shiny black crows.
Greet each one staking their claim on the
highest tree branch and calling out, “I’m back!”.
With both ears, stop to listen to the message
of last week’s scrunchy snow giving way to warmth
trickling down gutters and into spring streams.
Leave seeds for songbirds returning to the
backyard after the long migration from
southern lands. They’ll have voracious appetites!
Walk as far as your legs will carry you
with a sense of wonder and awe for God’s
creation. God loves you and her grace infuses you.
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More thoughts on experiencing the season of late winter
While sitting on the park bench, I vacillate between seeing the trees bare as they are presently and trying to imagine green leafy branches. Yet no matter how I try to see the leaves I cannot. This seems crazy because I’ve seen these same trees fully leafed out so many times before. Yet it is still winter on this day, so we honor it and the Season of Lent.
In this moment, the bare branches bring on a reflection of holy anger at injustices in the world. I pray for the unconscionable starvation in Yemen and other places, the lives that have been taken by Covid 19, and the harming of one by another (especially those close to my heart).
During the time of Lectio Divina, we pray the scripture from Luke 5:17-20. I hear with my heart the story again of the paralytic being lowered through the roof by his friends in order to be healed by Jesus and am able to release the anger and bring each concern to Christ for healing. Gradually, I trust enough to lay it all down in prayer.
After warming in the sun for this time, I’m filled with a sense of gratitude that the trees, and we, have survived another season of cold, ice, and snow. The tall elms and oaks teach us about honoring the season of winter as we dig down roots of faith, reach up to the Son, and open our branches to the Spirit. Through nature and kind people loving us, we are reminded of that place within where we are one’d with Christ. There we find true peace and healing.
Above all, iIn that spacious part of our hearts, our awareness draws us to fulfilling our promise to God. May we “Be the one, For the one, Through the one. *
In Christ’s peace and love we abide,
Rev. Marta Wheeler