Ash Wednesday

Gardens can certainly be a source of joy. They can also be a source of disappointment. You can relax and take a breath in a garden. You can also strain your back and become exhausted under the hot sun. Gardens can provide food for our bodies and beauty for our souls.

Looking at the garden Lent can be a gardening time. Coming as spring draws near, it offers an opportunity for thinking how our lives can be more productive and satisfying. We have come a long way from the Advent/Christmastide season's hope and promise to a far different place. This is a time for "digging in", because it takes work to reap a rich harvest.

As winter snow melts and freezing temperatures moderate a bit, fields and gardens often look pretty bleak and baron. Old remnants of bushes and skeletons of leaves provide only memories of things that once grew. In our personal lives, we may feel that we have come a long way from the Garden of Eden. The ashes of Ash Wednesday, the 26th, symbolize some of this deadness-lack of vitality so to speak.

Lent is a time to work on our personal gardens. One of the wonderful things about faith is its reminder that we can always make a fresh start. Human lives are a lot like perennials. They may look dead at times, but there is life within them waiting for renewal. The sun of God's wisdom awakens us. The shower of God's love start our juices flowing again. A new day, season begins from the ashes of bleakness.

Whatever our age or position we hold in life, growth is possible. we need to weed out those things that hinder us, that absorb our time and energies, but are not productive nor of God's call. Loosen up the soil around us, so that we are open to receive the goodness of God's providence. Please don't let the lenten Season simply happen. Use it for starting new growth, new thoughts, a new way in letting God nourish your spirit!

​The Word of God often says; Do not be afraid." Let us enter this Lenten season open to where God wants us both individually and corporately. God has blessed us. Hope to see you this morning as we look at the mountain top. 

Almighty God, as I enter this Lenten season help my heart to be open to hearing and feeling Your Word in my life. Renew me Father. Lor, I pray the lenten services we share with our sister churches are full of others who want ot grow this Lenten season. Bless us Lord, as we walk htis road to calvary together. Lord I thank you in the name of Your Son, Amen