I spread out my hands to you
my soul gasps to you like a thirsty land. Psalm 143:6
I yearn for the desert this Lent. I am ready to enter it. I expect to find water in the dry and barren land.
In years past I have often clung to the bleakness of the season, plumbing the depths of emptiness and desolation. As I was born on Ash Wednesday, I have claimed an inborn affinity for melancholy introspection. I have been all for soul searching, ready to traverse the darkest terrain, knowing I would emerge into the light of the resurrection.
But now I take a different path. I will traverse the desert again, but this time I will notice life along the way. Abundant life. Cleverly devised life. Desert life. The beginning day of Lent a half-century ago was not barren. New life came. My life came.
God formed the first human creature from the dust of the ground. Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Remember what God can do with dust.
copyright © Anne E. Kitch 2012
