Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord. –Lamentations 3:40
Our house has three wonderful trees that help give our yard a beautiful look year-round. During the summer, they provide great shade and give my daughters something to climb. During the winter, we cover them in Christmas lights and they provide a different beauty to our home. We love our trees.
The trees in our yard really do add to the beauty of our home. The large branches, beautiful green leafs are wonderful. The beautiful trees are also quite destructive to the rest of our landscape. From time to time, we have to trim the branches of our trees back. If we are not careful they will grow over our roof and damage our house. The more we allow our trees to grow, the less opportunity the grass below has to flourish. As the tree branches keep the area underneath from being able to support our other landscaping. If we don’t keep our trees well-manicured they actually prevent growth.
In many ways, those times when we have to trim our trees, remind me of the season of Lent. Lent is the 40 days of preparation we set aside to prepare ourselves for the great celebration of Easter. Lent is a time filled with practices that allow us focus on our faith and grow closer to God. We use practices, during Lent, such as fasting, prayer, and meditation to open our hearts and minds to the light of Christ. It is a time when we are intentionally examining our lives and remove those obstacles that prevent our faith from growing.
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (tomorrow). I want to encourage you to take advantage of the season of Lent to better let the light of Christ into your life. What obstructions are in your life that need to be addressed? What practice might you adopt that will help you prepare for the wonderful celebration of Easter. Tomorrow we begin Lent, but today we decide what branches we need to trim and what practices we need to better let the light and love of God into our lives.
Rev. Keith King, Online Campus Pastor
