“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God” (Psalm 42:11; 43:5). Sooner or later springtime flowers will bloom in Ukraine. People frail and sick look out the window and see springtime blossoms on trees. Hearts weighed down with problems, do we notice the little springtime signs of hope?
“Earth’s crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God.
And only he who sees takes off his shoes.
The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.”
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
“Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” I like Dr. Christopher Mitchell’s image of Lent. It’s the valley between the glory Jesus showed on the Mount of Transfiguration and the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem. Now you and I are in the valley of the shadow, but even in our troubles, flowers bloom. I love the hellebore, popularly called “Lenten rose.” The first time I saw one bloom, I thought the plant had been faked out by some unseasonably warm weather. Nope. This hellebore blooms in Lent. To me a reminder that we don’t have to be dour and gloomy in Lent, alleluia! “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites” (Matthew 6:16-18).
We’re in that valley with hope. “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2). “Ye flowers, so wondrous sweet and fair, / Ye live to show His praise alone, / With me now make His glory known” (The Lutheran Hymnal, 30:3).