Lenten Lessons on Love

Lent is a season of love.

Not the kind of love that one can contain in a heart-shaped box of chocolates or express in a store-bought card; this love is far more enduring.  It is a love that has surrounded us all our days; we were born into this love and it never leaves us even when we do not acknowledge or comprehend its depth.

It reminds me of a story I once read from ancient wisdom.  The story goes that a young fish swam up to a much older and wiser fish asking, “What is all this water I hear about?” The older fish responded, “You were born into this water, it surrounds you, sustains you and without it, you would not survive. You do not know life without this water.”

We do not know life without this love.  It doesn’t mean life is made easier, but, when we begin to recognize the presence of this love in our lives; the living becomes more purposeful.

This is the kind of love that hung on a cross trusting in God’s redemptive plan.  The kind of love that calls us to serve the other daily in small seemingly unimportant ways, unnoticed perhaps by humans but not unseen by angels. And, “In those moments we become one with God, with God’s love and that moment changes into eternity and God calls us his true child and Christ calls us his friends.”*

May your Lenten journey draw you ever deeper into God’s light, love and friendship.

Blessings,

Rev. Heather McCarrel

*Rev. Friedich Rittelmeyer Lutheran minister (1872-1938).  “Passiontide: The Washing of The Feet”

The photo with this Blog was taken by Amir Arefi