In the Christian tradition, the season of “Lent” always lines up with Spring. It’s a strange thing, pairing a period of time preparing for Jesus’ death on the cross, with the time of year where it gets sunnier and warmer and more and more beautiful outside. Lent begins with the phrase “we are dust and to dust we shall return.” Spring begins with the sun shining for longer hours and the flowers beginning to bloom. Lent directs us to give up that which distracts us from God. Spring fills the outdoors with beautiful distractions.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep the globe, and our days of social isolation continue, it feels like the Lentiest Lent that ever was Lent, you know? As our new reality begins to sink in, all of us are becoming vividly aware that “to dust we shall return.” Preparing for Jesus’ death on the cross feels par-for-the-course of what we’re being asked to do right now. People we know and love are at greater and greater risk each day, and the fear threatens to consume us. Social distancing and spending more time at home have eliminated oh-so-many distractions from our lives. It is a wilderness. It is Lent.

And.

And it is Spring. Here at Ferncliff the trees are filling out each day. The sun shines over the quiet stillness of Ferncliff Lake. The wind blows a gentle breeze through the blooming flowers. The days are getting warmer and the beauty calls us outside into Creation. And this Spring, because of these odd pandemic circumstances, people are finding small bits of joy in the change. Children and youth are remarking on how nice it is to spend so much time with their parents, to have dinners together, to play games together. Friends who live far apart are connecting virtually more often than ever before. People and organizations are thoughtfully contributing in new ways to the good of their community.

It all makes me wonder – maybe we need Lent to be in Spring. Maybe we need the flowers to bloom and the small moments of joy. Because Lent – especially this year – is hard. It’s dark. It’s exhausting. We need the trees to turn green and the sun to shine – because in those beautiful things, we are reminded that God is still at work, and the resurrection is still to come.

May we find those moments of joy, and let us enjoy them. And may they be reminders to us, that while we shall one day return to dust, for now, it is Spring.

Jocelyn Wildhack is our Camp, Events, and Forest Church Coordinator. She is soon to be ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).