Into the dark world
a snowdrop comes,
a blessing of hope and peace
carrying within it a green heart:
symbol of God’s renewing love.
Come to inhabit our darkness, Lord Christ,
for dark and light are alike to you.
May nature’s white candles of hope
remind us of your birth
and lighten our journey
through Lent and beyond.
Kate McLlagga
The snowdrops have appeared announcing quietly the turning of the year and a movement towards a new season. Despite the heavy snow and hard frosts – they pierce the ground and show forth a resilient nature – laughing at the inability of winter to stop their growth. Yet theirs is not a haughty head seeking praise and affection, or a high one mocking the darkness, but a quiet confidence, stern enough to turn the tide and humble enough to not walk in pride.
This simple flower teaches us the way towards Lent. For Lent is a season that asks us to begin to resist, not a violent or outward stance against the darkness of our world, but an inner beginning to recognise where the darkness may have hold within us and upon us.
It is call to begin a journey to travel with Christ – towards the cross – to confront the darkness, to reveal it for what it is so that the new creation may be begin while the storms and winter of the chaos of this world still try to ravage us. and bend us towards death and violence, hate and greed.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks about the need for ‘holy worldy’ people – followers of Jesus who live in the world but who are sustained by a secret discipline of prayer. ‘Contemplation’ or ‘action’ are false alternatives. Both are involved in a Christian lifestyle. A person who prays deeply will be driven to act against injustice. Similarly, a Christian who is engaged in the problems of the world will be driven to prayer. Contemplation is not escapism, a turning one’s back on the world which God loves. Prayer is at the heart of a genuine Christian radicalism – one which truly gets to the root of the matter.
Enter this season of prayer, contemplation as the snowdrop begins to move the earth under the frost, as they begins to reveal green shoots in defiance against the snow; become a people who quietly stand against the darkness of our age – to bring to birth the new creation.
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