Ash Wednesday was yesterday. It signals the season of Lent. We celebrate with a wooden likeness of Yeshua carrying a cross, circling a labyrinth, moving toward a cross made of large iron nails. We read a devotion and scripture that will prepare us for that season when Christ set His face for Jerusalem and the Cross. 

When the Lenten season begins the trees are still naked…grass hasn’t become spring green yet, and only a few hardy flowers are in bloom. We see hints of new life. We find the promise of a new season of growth…but it hasn’t completely revealed itself, yet.

As the days and weeks of Lent pass by, we see leaves on trees begin to peek out. Tulips, hyacinths, azaleas, begin to show colors we have longed to see. And maybe hadn’t realized how much we had missed them until we see them again. 

Lots of people fast during Lent. I have fasted in the past, in some way. It is a sober reminder of what Christ did for us on the cross. Even though our small sacrifice in no way matches what He did. It can help prepare us…make us think about this great 

gift of salvation. What we desperately needed and in our sin weren’t really sure we knew just what it was we needed…like those beautiful colors we had missed in winter?

I love that Passover, Lent, Resurrection Day occur in the spring. Winter can feel pretty drab and dead. But spring, with all that new life springing up, just makes an “earth picture”  that can illustrate the new life our Yeshua gave us when He sprang up out of that tomb.

Lent can seem somber…and probably should. However, I keep looking to that day. The day when joy springs up. The winter is over and new life has come.

Isn’t our Abba God so good to give us “pictures” to illustrate spiritual truth?