Displaying items by tag:priest

As We Wait for Spring by Canon Val

We Canadians do love to talk about our weather don’t we? (Do you ever wonder what folks talk about who live in climates with very little variation in the temperature? It is hard to image.) Whole conversations can take place between two complete strangers as they muse over the extremes we endure, with escalating tales of frozen pipes, outrageous heating bills, even debating just how many minutes does it take exactly for skin to freeze? I realize there are more cheerful conversations that can also be had around the weather such as the fact that winter provides us with opportunities to ski, snow shoe or skate outdoors. And there is nothing quite as lovely as the scene of the
sun in a bright blue February sky as it glistens down on snowy lawns and house tops. But as we stand on the verge of Easter 2024, even when within a single month we can experience blasts/teases of many different seasons, we know that spring is right around the corner, and while it can bring with it mud and melting, I don’t hear a lot of complaining as we watch winter disappear in our rear-view mirror.

Spring as it wakes up all around us becomes the season that turns sadness to joy, death into life, gloomy grays into brilliant colour, as trees and plants begin to shake off the hold of winter, pushing their way into a warmer world, each day bringing us a moment more light, with the mercury slowly but resolutely , making its way up the thermometer.

At the same time we as Christians are celebrating the season of Easter, the centre of our Christian year. Emerging from our Lenten observances and special services of Holy Week, Easter is for us a season of hope and of possibilities. As we recall and celebrate the incredible events of the first Easter Sunday, we are reminded that in Christ love triumphed over evil, darkness and death.
Humanity was set free from the slavery of the fear of death. Because of this as we go through grey and gloomy times in our own lives, challenged by health, financial or relationship issues, we know that in the midst of it all the gloom, there is God, even when and perhaps especially when it is not immediately apparent.

I know I have shared these verses before, but I do love this paraphrased translation, The Message. It expresses the perfect sentiment as we move out of gloom into light, and as life pushes us back and forth in and out of the gloom, catch Paul’s advice in the last verse…

We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

So, Alleluia, the Lord is risen, the Lord is risen indeed.