Lenten Teamwork

This has been a different kind of winter than I have been accustomed to... more snow and ice, brutal winds, weeks of dark grey days... and I have struggled with living in winter darkness. When I wake up in the mornings not only to dark but to no sunrise at all, I sink down in a miry clay that sucks my spirit under. Cold and snow I can live with. Harsh winter winds are no fun but I can always pull up the hood on my Carrhart jumpsuit. But days on end lived in half light and darkness wear me out and wear me down.
Yesterday and today have been beautiful, warm, filled with bright sunlight and suddenly I see signs of spring all around me. Those signs were there last week but obscured by my hazy vision. Too caught up in survival mode, grumping and complaining, cocooned inside the house with only short necessary trips outdoors, I never noticed the new birds visiting my feeders or the daffodils shooting up through the frozen soil. There are buds on my camellia bush and signs of new life, sap rising in trees and spring calves. I have been surrounded by spring light but too blinded by the remains of winter darkness to see.
Alison’s friend Molly came to visit her here at the farm yesterday. Molly’s children and Alison’s son Aidan took off running and jumping and swinging and exploring with verve and gusto. The sound of laughing children, the laughter of young friends now moms themselves, animals waiting to be petted and given treats, dogs chasing each other, neighbors dropping by with their children and grandchildren, doors flung open as children and dogs ran through the house front to back, an impromptu hay ride to see the trash pile bonfire and the cows... a welcome respite from the silence and isolation of winter.
Living through Lent I am covered up and weighed down by darkness. Everywhere I look I see and read of death, suffering, injustice, a Congress that seems consumed with itself at the expense of the people who need their help, wars and rumors of wars, assassinations and starvation, earthquakes and mud slides. Sometimes I cannot bear to even hear the news much less watch it. And yet the scripture for this week is not about the awfulness, the darkness, the sins of us all but about God’s loving care for those who love Him. God gives us into the charge of angels who will bear us up when life is more than we can handle by ourselves.
Aidan sings a little song while he works and plays... teamwork, it takes teamwork... learned from one of his television shows. That is what I need this Lenten season, a little teamwork with God to help me keep my eyes on the prize. The darkness is necessary so that I might see the Light. It cannot consume me nor destroy me if I keep this little light of mine burning as I walk through this season of preparation and recognition. So, here goes. Rain predicted for tonight and through the week, perhaps some frozen precipitation, grey light once again but I will remember these two days and hold them in my heart, a small warm light that glows with the assurance of things not seen but hoped for. Help me work with you, Lord, to be light and see light that reflects You in our world. Teamwork, it takes teamwork...May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen.