When I meet students on the sidewalk, I always make small talk, and yesterday I groused about the weather. It was lousy, cold and rainy. “This is nothing,” bragged one student. “I’m from Minnesota.” “Well, I remember delivering newspapers in Chicago Heights when it was below zero, but I can’t take it anymore.” I did smile when I bumped into our African students. They were so bundled up, you would have thought that it was 30 below! And oh, the nuisances of staying dry. Open, close your umbrellas and find a place to put it when you go into a building. Avoid puddles so you don’t ruin your shoes. Ugh, and my mother is vacationing in Florida!
“I’ll show you,” said God. I was going to teach my afternoon class, it’s about Law and Gospel, and walked through one of our quads. We call it the “three-quarter quad” because it’s open on one side. It’s landscaped with a water feature – frozen now – and a table and chairs for students to sit and study or talk – nobody out there yesterday! – and in summer this quad is lush with perennials, but now we’re in crummy weather time. Walking through this quad, looking down to avoid puddles, God got me. The Lenten roses are blooming! Its official name is helleborus orientalis but commonly called…because it blooms in Lent…the Lenten rose. And looking down, I saw daffodils pushing up, hyacinths popping up, and taking the cue to look up, I did and saw buds on trees.
Earlier I had been walking with a student and wondered out loud if Jesus ever complained about the weather. The student said that if Jesus didn’t like the weather, He could change it. Jesus made observations about the weather, but I doubt that He complained. He was so intimate with His heavenly Father that He saw God’s goodness and help at all times and in all places. “I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love,” Psalm 31:7, a psalm Jesus used in His most trying time. The church’s liturgy tries to muffle “Alleluias” in Lent, but the Lenten rose tells me the dreariness won’t last long. Easter is promised, spring is coming, and everyday you’re alive is a great day. Alleluia always!
Comments