Here in the middle of the season once known as lent,
With an imposed fast from our normal lives,
Exiled from work, play, and even joining the church in word and sacrament.
We hear on the news of disease, death and loss,
And are told to distance ourselves,
And we wonder what will come of all this chaos.
Yet here at the beginning of spring,
when things seem dark and black,
Everything is actually turning bright and green.
We must not forget that after winter,
Cold, lonely, dark and hard
Comes spring, helping us to forget all that was bitter.
After lying dormant in the ground,
The seeds of life remember their purpose
And begin to sprout and produce flowers all around.
After the trees have shed their leaves for what seems like no reason
And look almost hopeless and dead
They once again blossom and remind us that it is a new season.
This time seems so strange to us, all the confusion and no one able to explain,
As death and disease is so unnatural,
Yet we have a promise that death will be defeated and only life will remain.
For after six weeks of lent and fasting,
So long, difficult, and confusing
Comes seven glorious weeks of Easter, a foretaste of life everlasting.
After the excruciating suffering of Good Friday,
the sixth day of the week,
Comes the sabbath resting of the seventh day.
And then finally comes the end of our wait,
The first of day of the new week,
And the beginning of God’s new creation on day number eight.
What they fail to tell us on the news,
Is that death and disease is actually very old,
And that Jesus makes all things new.
It has been said that when times seem so wrong,
We must not abandon ourselves to despair,
For we are Easter people and Hallelujah is our song!
At this hour we have many a great need ,
But remember Easter is coming and we will proclaim
that Christ is Risen, He is Risen, Indeed!
Beyond the Fog 