Synchronicity: Of New Beginnings and Garden Hoses

Here we are, once again, at the beginning of Lent.

Well, technically, Lent started a few days ago, on Ash Wednesday. But I was busy with a family birthday so the day blew by me awfully quickly. This is the first Sunday of Lent so I will call it a good day to begin.

{If you're interested in facts, I'll remind you that the season of Lent is about 40 days long, measured in the weeks before Easter. In the Lutheran church, where I roll, it's traditionally a time of reflection for believers who want to prepare their hearts for the joy of Easter.}

{And Easter is the day when Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead to claim eternal life for himself and all who believe in him.}

Many Christians choose to give something up for Lent, like chocolate or Facebook, as a form of fasting or penitence. Nothing wrong with that.

But I like the idea of Lent as a time of digger deeper in my own heart and mind, to think about my faith and what God means to me. And to write about it here.

I hope you will follow along.

I have come to think of Lent as a series of images. And the first image is always water.

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To me, water symbolizes life, survival, refreshment, cleansing, satisfaction, fresh starts, and since our bodies are mostly water, it symbolizes me. Only water can satisfy our physical thirst just as only God can satisfy our longing for love.

To Christians, water also symbolizes baptism. Baptism is the point at which we invite God into our hearts and our lives, not because we deserve him but because He already loves us.

You know how sometimes you turn on a garden hose, and the water starts blasting out, and no matter which way you turn the faucet handle, you can't turn it off? I think of God's love as that same kind of uncontrollable, fast-flowing outpouring of goodness.

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Baptism is not what turns the hose on. God's love for you started flowing from the moment he formed you in your mother's womb. He has always loved you and will always love you, no matter what you do or don't do.

Baptism is the moment when you put your parched, aching mouth to that hose of free-flowing love from God and begin to drink.