LOOKING INTO THE FACE OF GOD

                                          Lenten Roses, Jamestown, NC

Hellebores or Lenten Roses make an excellent winter hardy shade perennial for the woodland garden.  I tried a variety of plants in my backyard wooded area but thankfully I stumbled upon these evergreen plants that have thrived under the trees and require only minimal care.  They bloom during the Lenten season when practically nothing else is ready to poke their heads above ground until they are certain that freezing temperatures have passed.

These plants also self-propagate by bursting their seed pods all around them at the end of the growing cycle.  The plants were originally grown for their medicinal properties.  And although they are toxic, the trait makes them prized deer-resistant garden plants for areas that suffer from wildlife pressures.

We found a nursery outside our community that actually specialized in growing these plants and was appropriately named Gethsemane Gardens!  The flowering heads of these reverent plants are generally bowed in the garden and its always a surprise to bend down to their level and look into the face of God, as we move from the Christmas season of God appearing in the flesh on this vibrant Earth and defeating sin and death at this imminent time of Easter.

WALKING IN THE WILDERNESS

                                 The Wilderness, Qumran, Israel

As we enter into another Lenten season, we are once again confronted with another mass shooting of innocents by a deranged individual who had access to a semi-automatic rifle.  Another rapid-fire weapon with large magazines was used to hail death and destruction randomly in a soft target public place, like the school where we send our children and assume they will be safe.  Our writers of the constitution used single fire Jamestown rifles that required minutes to reload and they had no conception of the weapons of war that have been made accessible on the street to everyday citizens without serious scrutiny.

Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to the wilderness near the Dead Sea in Israel to be tempted by the evil one with worldly prizes.  We too can spiritually walk in his footsteps during this Lenten season of repentance and spiritual self-examination.  Adam Hamilton writes in The Way that Lent is “a time when we recall our brokenness and mortality” and that “the wilderness is often a metaphor for those places we don’t want to go, when life seems barren and the road seems hard and we seem to be wrestling with evil.”  Adam writes that “the Greek word for repentance is metanoia—literally, to think differently or to change one’s mind.  But it means something deeper than this in the Gospels.  It means to have a change of mind that leads to a change of heart and a change of values that ultimately leads to a changed life.”  This thought could also apply to our country right now.

Jesus healed the people as he walked through the Holy Land during his brief ministry.  God now works through ordinary people like you and me who become instruments of healing.  Believers carried their disabled friend on a stretcher and lowered him through th.le thatched roof of Peter’s house in Capernaum so that Jesus could heal him.  Now its our turn to be those stretcher-bearers.  We’re not only called to be hearers of the word, but doers of the word.

I believe this country reached a tipping point after the latest mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.  The time for action has come and it’s a sad commentary when our children have seized the initiative by shouting that if the voters and politicians can’t get off their hands, their generation will make it happen.  There is a confluence of root causes contributing to this horrendous issue starting with mental health.  The basic family structure has been broken for years along with declining parental discipline and respect for authority.  Our television “shows” have politicians and personalities literally screaming at one another on the 24/7 cable channels.  Our movie industry is filled with violence. 

I grew up with guns and had wonderful times hunting with my father and uncles.  But assault weapons belong in the hands of our military and police to challenge the bad guys—not private citizens.  I can defend myself from individuals that seek to invade my privacy.  If the world gets any more chaotic than that, I’m pretty sure an assault rifle won’t be of much help by then.  Remember when video games were introduced with indiscriminate killing and we all wondered what would become of developing children who became addicted to playing them past midnight?  Well they’ve become desensitized to the sanctity of life and the chickens have come home to roost.  Bullying in schools is driving more children to an early suicide.  That just happened again today.  And we ask where is God in our schools?  He’s no longer welcome there.  WE need to work together and make changes!  Firing high velocity weapons as a hobby which can decimate vital organs does not trump keeping our children safe in soft target places.

Hamilton concludes his book by writing “I’m counting on the fact that sin and hate and sickness and death will not have the final word.  When we walk in the footsteps of the resurrected Christ, we walk with hope.”  But now we walk in the wilderness behind our children.