The season of Lent is upon us. During the next forty days we will be reflecting on repentance and our spiritual lives. At times it will feel like we have done that enough, can we just get to Easter? Indeed, every Sunday in Lent is a mini-Easter as we celebrate the resurrection in the words we say during Communion. Yet, this time can be an overwhelmingly positive one. Life can be difficult and sometimes we are challenged to the point of near despair. We forget that God has overcome this world. We forget that history is rushing toward its consummation in the second coming of Jesus. Our problems and our sins seem too big. Yet, the promise of Lent is that if we take the time to concentrate on our spiritual growth, if we take the focus off ourselves and on to Jesus, then our faith and hope will be renewed. We will come to know in a clearer way, the promise that Jesus gave us that He will have the final word and will restore and renew all of creation.
John reminds us of this truth when he writes in Revelation 21: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
My prayer is that all of us at COTHA will find the time of Lent to be a time of restoration and renewal. Yes Jesus is coming again to take us to that beautiful place, but we can get a taste of heaven even now. May Lent be a time where we refocus and re-taste the good of God through Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
John reminds us of this truth when he writes in Revelation 21: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
My prayer is that all of us at COTHA will find the time of Lent to be a time of restoration and renewal. Yes Jesus is coming again to take us to that beautiful place, but we can get a taste of heaven even now. May Lent be a time where we refocus and re-taste the good of God through Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
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