Above is the screenshot from the moment I checked sunrise and sunset this morning. The sky was quite light at 8:30, but the blessing was that we could look out to see trees and birds at our feeders from just after 6:30. And this evening we'll enjoy the same until shortly aftter 6:00 PM. Even though our planet Earth is nearly 150 million kilometres from our star, there are changes in our path around the Sun which bring us hope.
Hallelujah! Well maybe we'll hold back on the hallelujahs because we're supposed to refrain from this celebratory word in worship, including song, during our Christian season of Lent. Ash Wednesday, is the movable commencement of Lent, and this year it is two days from now, the 17th of February. One succinct description of Lent says:
Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. The English word “Lent” comes from the Anglo–Saxon word lencten, which means “lengthen” and refers to the lengthening days of Spring.
We have been experiencing frigid days and now have the prospect of significant snow which remind us that Spring isn't exactly around the corner. Yet those lengthening days will take us through the sombre weeks of Lent with a sense of promise built into sunrise and sunset, bringing us to the joy of Easter.
The hymn "All Earth is Waiting" is actually for Advent, yet there is a sense that the anticipation of Christ's birth is also for his rebirth. The Earth, seemingly locked in dormancy and death, will bloom again. Thanks be to God, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.
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