“For everything there is a season…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
The seasons of the church year take in aspects of Jesus’ life – Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, the Baptism of the Lord, Lent, Eastertide – and the life of the church – Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Trinity Sunday.
Advent writing is easy: it fits in with new beginnings, it is close to the new year when many make resolutions related to self-improvement, and it falls right after Thanksgiving, a time when we recount the good events of the current year.
Writing about Lent and Easter is a little more difficult. My mind wanders. However, this year we have a new perspective. We’re in a new climate and a new city, and we spend lots of time at home taking care of my mother with help from a hospice agency. We often sit at the bay window in the breakfast room, looking north and seeing birds and plants and the neighbors’ trees that shade our yard. Our world is small.
As I write, gray-green female cardinals fluff their feathers outside the window. Their accompanying males, vivid red, almost fluorescent, stay farther away in a tree and on the fence. Cardinals replaced the tiny ruby-throated hummingbirds we gazed at as they flitted from tree to feeder to another tree in early autumn. None of them are aware of what takes place inside our house. For everything there is a season.
From my mother’s sick room, I see the bulging buds of the Bradford pear tree and a 6-inch shoot from the corm of an iris plant. The signs of nature reviving from the winter are side by side with the expected death of one we have loved for so long. For everything there is a season.
Contemplate the seasons in Jesus’ life. We know stories of his birth, the flight to Egypt, his youthful visit to the temple in Jerusalem, and his ministry during a few short years when he traversed the holy land telling the Good News of God’s love for humankind. The long story of the last days of his life make up a significant part of the gospels, showing us people who use power and might to combat those who lead to the Truth. Somehow, the Easter story of the risen Christ remains a profound influence on civilization. Praise God!
Prayer: God of Advent and Lent and Easter, as the seasons of our lives change, bring us ever closer to Jesus and his story for our lives. Amen.
Marilyn Donnelly
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