Lenten Reflections

In Whatever Season

It’s interesting the way we’ve boxed Advent and Christmas into wintertime and Lent and Easter into spring. It seems we want our Jesus to be born on a dark cold night and to rise on a bright warm day; to come into this world under the harshest of human conditions, and to return in an explosion of heavenly glory.

But the weather doesn’t always cooperate, especially here in North Texas. A few years ago it was relatively mild during Advent; not once did it dip below freezing, and we enjoyed many days in the 60s. And then one day in the middle of Lent, it was 25 degrees with four inches of snow and ice on the ground. We were supposed to be walking through the quiet, thoughtful, prayerful days of Lent, but instead we took an invigorating trudge to the city park, ankle deep in snow, where families were sledding under a clear, sunny sky. We came home and LeAnn made a snowman . . . during Lent.

Sometimes it’s all mixed up, and that’s OK, because Christmas and Easter don’t belong to a season. They belong to the heart – in whatever season the heart is in.