Lenten Devotions 1

Now that Lent has come and gone and we are now officially into the season of Easter, I want to do something I meant to do throughout Lent. As you may know, Fourth Church puts out daily devotions that are available via email, on the website, or in print each week. Most of the time, these are written by members of the Fourth Church staff. During special seasons of the church year, like Lent, we also invite members of the congregation to contribute to these. This year's Lent devotions were excellent, and several of them were written by Fourth Church youth or adults associated with the youth program. As something of a Lenten retrospective, I want to post these Fourth Church Youth devotions on this blog, in case you missed them before. Thanks to all who worked hard on writing these!

Scripture Reading: Genesis 1:1–5

Reflection
Yesterday we stood, once again, at the beginning of our journey to the foot of the cross. We quietly received our ashes and heard the words, “Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” Ashes too remind us of our deep need for God and how we have strayed from the source of our life, from the source of our very being. Today we read the words “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters . . . and there was light . . . and God separated the light from the darkness.” In this time of preparation, to absorb once again the lengths to which God is willing to go—even to a cross—to bring us home from wherever we have strayed, I was struck by the image of the breath of God sweeping over the face of the deep. I could not help but think of the moments in our lives where we feel the breath of God sweeping across our faces and we feel the light of God illuminating our deepest darkness as if it were the first day. And I was reminded once again that even in the preceding darkness, God is there. As we remember how far we have strayed from our God, let us too remember that, be it day or night, there is nowhere we can go where our loving God cannot, and will not, seek us out.

Prayer
May I never forget the great expanse of your love, O God. Let me live fully, all to your glory, in the knowledge that even should I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand will lead me and your right hand shall always hold me fast. Amen.

Written by Linda McCarty, Fourth Church Rising Leader