Writing this in mid-February, I look out the window and wonder if this snow will ever go away. The ground has been covered for weeks. It has made movement challenging, roads narrow, sidewalks icy, and generally been a nuisance. Will it ever warm up? Will winter last forever? And yet I recognize that by the time we get to March it will be getting warmer. In fact, there will be flowers coming out. There will be a feeling of spring in the air. Not every day, to be sure. March is unpredictable, after all. It is not a straight line movement from winter through the spring into summer. Yet the signs will begin that spring is on the way and eventually summer will get here. I see none of those signs at the moment, but I have no doubt that they are on the way. For the moment, though, I deal with the snow until those hopes become reality.
In the same way, we are in the midst of Lent. The reality of our sin and the brokenness of the world are apparent. Self-centeredness runs amok. Death seems to rule the day. Some days it seems that all of the evidence around us tells us that there is nothing more to hope for than the corrupted reality we see. Yet we have faith that Easter is coming. We have faith that the resurrection will prove to be true. We have faith that God is the ruler of this world and is the God of life and love. We have faith that the signs of new life will appear, even if we do not see them now. We trust that there will be joy in the morning and life forever. We will not be in Lent forever; we trust that Easter is coming. For the moment, though, we must deal with the lives we have, imperfect as they are, until our hope in the resurrection becomes fully realized.