Gifts We Must Look For

Beloved:

The hellebores in my front flower bed didn’t bloom at all last year.  This year I have three flowers, their petals so dark and their necks so bent I wouldn’t know they’d bloomed without tipping them up in my hand.  They are only five inches tall and much too delicate for cutting.  To enjoy them I have to squat in the mulch and lift their faces.  

Called the Christmas rose or Lenten rose because they bloom so early - they aren’t roses at all but kin to evergreens and ranunculaceae.  It appears they’ll be a slow grower in my garden, one I must remember to notice.  

Like Lent itself I suppose.  Two thousand seasons and the world still takes no pause for it’s beauty or its gifts.  Those who want it must look for it, shape our lives to its form.  We grow in it slowly and slowly It grows in us.  

While everywhere else my yard is exploding with daffodils; yellow ones, white ones, yellow/white ones, peach ones, pink ones, trumpets and tiny ones.  As though Easter refuses to wait for Lent to complete, teasing us shamelessly away from winter’s darkness.   

At Lent we remember again that from which we have been redeemed.  At Easter we celebrate redemption itself - release from fear and weakness, darkness and death.  We rejoice in the light and life that floods creation and sustains our lives and our life together, eternally!

I pray you’ll join us for Holy Week services beginning Palm Sunday this week.  Our Good Friday service is my favorite of the year and Easter Sunday, April 20th, is our 3rd annual Easter Feast & Worship at 9:30 & 10:45 respectively.  Please invite your friends to any and all of the services.  


peace & prayers, pastor annette