There’s a season for everything
and a time for every matter under the heavens.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 CEB

I was standing in the official Thomas Kincaid art gallery in Savannah, Georgia years ago. Lights were placed directly on the canvas, and every painting was the idyllic image. One of the attendants walked up to me staring at a painting, and said, “We light them up like this because they glow.”  It was true. Kincaid knew how to make paintings look like light was coming from them. It was amazing how perfectly he captured something that couldn’t really be seen.  These were his images of heaven, and his heaven had no dying leaves, no slushy snow, and no darkness. To me, it was also amazing how this man couldn’t see the beauty in the darkness.

When I heard the news that Kincaid had committed suicide my heart wept.  We found out he was living with depression. He knew the darkness. He lived within it.  If anyone needed to find the beauty beyond the idyllic, it was him. He made his works glow because he could not glow himself.

That’s a sad story, but it’s a story within life. There is a season for everything under heaven and earth. There is a time to be happy, and there is a time to be sad. There is a time for planting, and a time to gather crops. There is a time for war and a time for peace. Our world is cyclical. Our faith is the same. Worship is more than praising and thanking God. Sometimes we are Job on the ash heap crying out in despair.  There comes a time when we must face death to find new life.
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Ash Wednesday takes the ashes of the previous year, and reminds us that we are to walk with Christ to the cross to find new life. There’s a beauty in that walk as dark as it is. We must explore the shadows of our faith, because the shadows remind us of how bright the light really is. 

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Oh God of heaven and earth, walk with us in this time of contemplation. Help us see the beauty in all of creation. Help us as we begin this season.
Amen

Rev Melissa Fain is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.) She currently serves as the Senior Minister at Fig Tree Christian.  Her passion is new church planting and revitalization. Fig Tree is the second big church plant she has been part of.  Melissa enjoys all forms of the arts, having a degree in vocal music from Kennesaw State University. She also graduated from Candler School of Theology in the Fall of 2010, and has worked in Christian settings since 1999. Melissa is a mother of two wonderful children, and the wife to a very talented illustrator.

Those who come regularly might be a bit puzzled. This is Wednesday. Meditations are always posted on Thursday. I know. I know. It might seem a bit off, but today is Ash Wednesday. I just want to write this week to explain it a bit.

1. This is the first day of Lent. In 40 days (leaving out Sundays) we will begin the steps towards Easter. No, not lent like the stuff you find in your dryer or in your pockets. Lent is a time of fast and preparation. Many Christians, across the world, will be preparing by going to a service where an ash cross will be placed upon their heads.
2. Catholic/Orthodox Christians typically fast during this time. Protestant Christians typically give something up. I can remember years ago when I was a child, we had this thing called Children's moment during church. All the kids came up every Sunday and a congregant or minister gave a mini-lesson to the kids. One week, the first Sunday of Lent, a congregant gave all of us a bag of chocolate coins. Then she told us not to eat them until after Lent was over. My solution to the chocolate conundrum was to stash the candy away and forget about it until Easter. I didn't really learn anything. I didn't give up chocolate for Lent, I gave up a bag of candy I didn't have before Lent. I actually gained something by agreeing to wait. 
3. I believe the purpose of Lent is preparation. Lent is 40 days. Everything that happens in the bible that takes 40 anything usually is symbolic of some big, life changing event. I did a 40 day fast about a year and a half ago. I gave up sugary drinks and prayed. I still don't drink sugary drinks. I didn't just give up something because I couldn't live without that piece of excess. I discovered I needed to make healthier life choices. I prepared for a new healthier me. While, I am not a poster child for health, I am healthier now. Lent is the same way. If you decide to participate, you are preparing to be a better Christian. 
4. This is wilderness time. I hate camping, but I love wilderness time. (I hate camping because it never ends well. There is always a monsoon that erupts right over my tent and we end up sleeping the night in the car instead of outdoors.) I love wilderness time because we are asked to rediscover what God has called us to be by stripping the false Edens we live in and returning to the wilderness. It is absolutely scandalous, because it looks so backwards. 
5. A call for us all to prepare. Whether you will be fasting, giving something up, or not doing any of that; we need to hold the words of John the Baptist in our hearts. "Prepare the way of the Lord." This is a time to look at ourselves and discover how we are a slave to our everyday life. I heard a powerful sermon years ago, regarding the Israelites 40 years in the wilderness. They needed that long in the wilderness to undo their tendencies to slavery. There future was the Promised Land, but they had to be completely free of their past to embrace it. That's what Lent is about, freeing ourselves from what oppresses us or what causes us to oppress others. Getting through the scandal of the wilderness is the only way to understand the scandal of the cross. 

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