Christian Living

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Spring has come after the biting and dark winter. The longer and colder the winter has come to an end and the sweeter the spring is blossoming in front of us with all promises. Nature is awake from her long slumber of winter. Beauty pageants of glorious things are filling our earth assuring us all hopes. Green, green, everywhere green! God is calling us through His nature to wake up and return to God.

Hope of the Spring

Yes, Friends, wake and say ‘hello’ to spring and to God. Nature is waiting to refresh her with green. It’s not only the warmth of the sun that returns, but also the lovely colors. The sun is waiting to pierce through the blue sky and fill the earth with green and other colors. God is waiting to fill His children with love and smothering embraces. He is looking through the window anxiously waiting to see His ‘returning son’ who collected his share from his Father and went to a distant land. The spring is a season of hope and anxious waiting. “Welcome back” is the animated celebration of springtime, moving from the despair of the cruel months to the joy of hope at the return of the softer ones.

Lent blossoms in the spring

Winter of the soul has been restless. When we turn back, we can see only most of the ugly pictures of our sinful life. The cruel and biting realities of that ‘dark night’ frighten us and force us to stand back and reflect. “What is the meaning of this life?” “Where can we find some hope?” Our restless nature is anxious to find some hold; anxious to see some ray of hope; and anxious to get out of the abysmal darkness and return to ‘the eternal bliss’. Spring is the season of hope that refreshes nature. Lent is the spring of the soul, that promises real peace and prosperity.

Spring is a craving to get out of the cocoon

Spring is the season of rebirth. The seeds and bulbs of plants under the earth crave to sprout and come out to see the sun. The pupa inside the cocoon longs to get out of it and fly freely as a butterfly. Lent is the sprout of the soul, beckoning to repent and return. It is the time of listening to the inner voice. It is realization of ones own pitiable condition. It is return. “So famished was he that he longed to fill his stomach even with the food given to the pigs, but no one offered him anything. Finally coming to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired workers have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will get up and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against God and before you.” Luke 15: 15-18)

Lent is a season of solace

St. Augustine says, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you” (Confessions I, 1). He made this statement when he was restless in his soul because of irrepresssible longings for peace and unspeakable yearnings for finding a meaning in his life. Lent is a call from God assuring us peace. It is the right time.

Friends, return and repent. It’s spring. It’s Lent.

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