Dear Friends,
Did you have pancakes on Tuesday? Pancake Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnival — all ways of having one last hurrah before the sober season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.
Lent is a season of quiet reflection leading up to Easter. It is made up of 40 days, symbolic of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness. It began last Wednesday, and goes to the Saturday before Easter. If you are counting, remember Sundays are not included because they are always days of celebration, of resurrection.
This year, Dr. Tori Smit, our Synod’s Regional Minister for Faith Formation, has worked with Presbyterians in our Synod and with the Foothills Presbytery, South Carolina, PCUSA, to provide us with virtual gardens we can visit each week during Lent. You received the first link to one with Ash Wednesday’s special Tidbits. Have you checked it out yet?
We’ve now posted the link to the Lent Garden for this upcoming week. Once you are in the garden, follow the directions on the white board to find the scripture readings for this week. Then click on the Little Free Libraries for stories, the guitar for music, the gnome for a craft. Try the hanging flower basket, the door, the picnic basket and see what you will find. This week a minister from our Presbytery is reading one of the stories and it is from Laura Alary’s book, Read, Wonder, Listen!
Lent is a six-week journey and these gardens are one way we can walk slowly and reflectively through the season of Lent, day by day, and week by week.
Revs. Bob and Helen Smith
A version of this message first appeared in the Friday, February 19, 2021, edition of Tidbits.