Meditation for Lent: Second Week of Lent
- Posted on Mar 18, 2014
All living creatures are sparks from the radiation of God’s brilliance, and these sparks emerge from God like rays of the sun. If God did not give off these sparks, how would the divine flame become fully visible?
– Hildegard of Bingen
With another snowstorm just under our belts, the rays of the sun are a welcome sight this time of year. We are all eager for spring to come…and this year, it seems as though spring will never get here! The past weekend, I was at our home in the Western Maryland mountains and was looking forward to sitting on our deck in the sun. Saturday morning came and a brisk, cool breeze was blowing and there were no two ways about it, it was cold. BUT the sun was out and I was going out on the deck no matter what! So I dusted off the deck chair which had been put away for the winter and went out with my morning tea on the deck. It was decidedly chilly, so I took my blanket and bundled up—setting my chair directly in the sun. I could feel the warm rays on my face and settled in for a spell. About the same time, I heard a sound. A rat-a-tat-tat in the trees. The resident woodpecker was here and back to his noisy work. As I listened, I heard more bird song in the trees. The sun was out and the sky was a beautiful blue. I could sense myself and nature coming out of hibernation—and ready for those rays of sun and the new life of spring.
As the weather forecast warning of snow appeared Sunday evening, I took a walk around our property. Still sunny with clouds beginning to build in the west, I wondered how it could possibly snow again. On the western side of the hill by our house, I saw what I knew was the final sign that spring was on its way. A calling card from God’s creation that said to me: Do not fear! The green of the daffodil plants were beginning to sprout from the soil. The more I looked, the more I realized that it wasn’t just one group of daffodils that had made their way to the sunlight—they were everywhere! The leaves on the raspberry stalks were just barely perceptible–but they were there. In fact, if you looked closely, you could just see a slight hint of green on all the bushes.
As I learned in South Africa, it is not the rain that makes this so, but the increasing amount of sunlight this time of year. Even with all this winter weather, spring is going to come—according to the sun’s rays. And so it is with us, in the winters of our lives—when it seems as if there is too much sadness and heartache to bear—it is the rays of God’s love in often very imperceptible ways that allows us to wake up and live another day. To come out of our hibernation. And if we stay faithful to those small rays of light in our lights—through prayer, through community, through small daily acts of love—then one day we will wake up and see the immense greenness once again. Spring will be here—and new life will abound.
On Monday morning, as I awoke to a land of whiteness and more snow, I smiled because I knew….underneath six inches of snow, the daffodils were making their way towards the sun and in a tree somewhere nearby the woodpecker was readying his work for this year. The speaks of God’s love that give us hope that the dark winter will soon indeed be past.