March Message

I’m hoping, in the time between writing this and it being printed, that spring has sprung!

The snowdrops are already out, daffodils are waiting in the wings, and soon the trees will get their leaves back.

Funny then, that the season where nature breathes new life, falls under Lent in the Christian calendar. This period of 40 days (or a bit more, if you count the Sundays) is a time for us to be focusing inwards, considering what bits of us need shedding off, or turning away from. And yet, outside, it feels like everything gains a new quality, like the colour setting for the outdoors has been turned up.

But is it really that much of a juxtaposition that I’m setting it up to be?

If we see Lent as the purifying of ourselves, in pinpointing the times and ways that we’ve strayed from God and God’s love and going out to try and fix that, then perhaps by Easter we will be part of that scene of flourishing nature.

Or, if you’ll allow me to use something of a rather tortured analogy, we can use Lent to go from being a cold dormant tree into something blossoming and thriving… If we see ourselves as one of those trees, allowing God’s care to get our cold sap moving into something warm and life-giving, together with perhaps a bit of pruning (or, some lopping, depending on how you’re feeling), by Easter we will be our best selves. Not only that, but we will be giving life to all around us.

Revd. Pippa