As a church family we have once again come to a very familiar season. The days of this journey are among the most identifiably christian within our church year and have the ability to lead us to a deeper understanding of ourselves as followers of Jesus.
Some are traveling this road for the very first time, others for the first time in a long while. Some will find it a journey to the watery birth of Baptism and the confirming of that faith with the anointing oil of gladness. Some will find themselves on this journey and some will loose who they think they are as we take to the road in His footsteps.
Forty days and forty nights will lengthen the mighty sun’s hours of visiting the earth. The earliest understanding of these days is to do just that. Bringing an end to Winter’s death and a muddy birth to Spring’s awakening days, the world around us embraces change and growth, challenge and nurture. We will be called to do the same.
Our journey begins with a dirty reminder on the forehead of where we have come from and where it is we are headed. There is no shame in the ashen cross on our brow, but a loving reminder of the dawning days of creation and God’s breath within us.
The steps of this journey will lead our Beloved down a road of betrayal, dishonesty and the darkest of human days. Together we’ll stand at the foot of the cross and name the wounds our own…but that is really only where the story begins. For now, we walk forward; following the Holy Tree, not on some hill far away or in a garden we have been thrown out of, but here in our midst.
See our journey as one…with Christ, with one another, with Christians throughout the world. Let us hold one another in prayer and love, let us go forward then, in peace.