Good morning…
“Hi Sue,” she texted, “the above image, shared by a friend but photographer unknown, is evocative of Lent and these lingering grey days. It may resonate with your artist/writer soul.”
Inviting my soul to dance, this photo is fantastic, mysterious, ethereal. A snow covered prayer labyrinth. The pointy tips of a cathedral in the hazy fog. A gentle pastel sky mixed with billowy clouds. A bundled up person strolling amid the bare winter trees. Exquisite. Peaceful. Eerily silent. Stripped down to God’s undeniable presence, visually we are invited to rest our ear on the chest of God’s beating heart.
I also love being introduced to a new phrase, “evocative of Lent.” We possess the power to evoke our own Lenten experience. Expressive. Moving. Striking. Revealing. Pointed. Pregnant. Vivid. Meaningful. Poignant. Eloquent. These adjectives, synonyms for evocative, help to ground our own bare feet in the soil of Lent.
At the time God made Earth and Heaven, before any grasses or shrubs had sprouted from the ground—God hadn’t yet sent rain on Earth, nor was there anyone around to work the ground (the whole Earth was watered by underground springs)—God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul! (Genesis 2:4-7, MSG).
“You are dust, and when you die, you will return to the dust” (Genesis 3:19b, GW).
The bodies of people and animals end the same way. They came from the earth, and, in the end, they will go back to the earth (Ecclesiastes 3:20, ERV).
…before the dust returns to the earth that gave it and the spirit-breath returns to God who breathed it, let us remember our Creator (Ecclesiastes 12:7, VOICE).
Now it’s your turn. As your soul dances with this photo for a wonderful while, what might our Creator be inviting you to remember amid the lingering grey of this Lenten season?
…Sue…
