By the end of the month it will officially be spring and the nature around us is starting to reflect that change. Trees budding, the first flowers making their collective presence known, recolouring the palette of our gardens. Lighter evenings, the days feeling longer. A fresh sense of possibility in the air, the minus 8’s of winter a fading memory, the gas bill perhaps feeling a little more manageable this month.
And yet, we know the gas bills are still far higher than they were a year ago. We may also have heard stories from gardeners we know, of the change in patterns of when the flowers bloom this year, or when or if the birds migrate at the moment. The weather (the very warm November and very cold January) might have felt to nature like two back-to-back winter seasons putting nature out of kilter.
But here in March we journey onwards through the midst of what feels like a very early Lent, and onwards towards Easter in April. Easter – that great season of the Church year, whose observance has barely changed in centuries and yet is the season which itself marks a distinct change in the everyday. God’s son Jesus dies on a cross so that we might know forgiveness and life in all its fullness.
And here and now in the midst of Lent we are challenged to prepare ourselves, to be reminded in these great unchanging church seasons, that radical change is possible in and through faith because of Jesus’ great sacrifice for us. AMEN.
Blessings
Rev Tim
