Dormancy

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:  a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;  a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up (Ecclesiastes 3:1-3).

Saturday, March 2, was a cold day. As the temperature fell fast and the snow fell faster, 12 youth and 4 adults bravely headed outside to work in one of Seedleaf’s community gardens. Participating in 30 Hour Famine, our students were fasting and praying for an end to world hunger while participating in local community service. On this day, one-third of our group had been assigned to work outside.

The first group worked diligently and deliberately to remove cover-crop and weeds and to rake the raised beds. The second group brought in a cardboard barrier, followed by a layer of dirt. A third group planted onions, turnips, and parsnips. We were clearing out and making way. In a few months, new vegetables of all kinds will spring forth from ground that was, on this day, frozen dead and cold. 

Yesterday, as I looked out, I was convinced we were done with cold and dead ground. My jonquils were bursting forth and my primrose was filling in. The sun was shining. Yesterday was a good day. I like spring - the new life part, the resurrection part. The days when dead looking trees experience new buds, butterflies come out of cocoons, and flowers form overnight. Those days my heart warms and my soul learns to fly like a newly born fluttering butterfly.

Today, I awoke cold to a dusting of snow covering my spring flowers. The sunshine peaked through for a moment, and then the sky returned to grey. I like the new life part, but I don’t do as well with the death part - those days when the ground is frozen, those days snooze is a better option because the shower will be too cold, those days when I am so spiritually frozen I am not sure whether I will thaw out again. I do not like those days, but nonetheless, they are as important as the new life days.

In God’s infinite wisdom, nature teaches us everything about death, dormancy, and new life. In Christ’s ultimate example, we see the radical implications of the transition from death to resurrection in the tomb. In the astuteness of our church Father’s and Mother’s we are given Lent as a time to reflect on those dark place of our lives so that we might be reborn. Yes, glimpses of new life are all around us. The resurrection is certainly on its way. But dark places are important too. The dead winter grounds of our soul prepare us. They rest us. They make way for new life. I may not like it, but God knows I need it.