Healing in Lent

Lenten Healing Tree

During Lent, my pastor is preaching on John 14...Setting Troubled Hearts at Rest...each week during worship, our church family has the opportunity to surrender something that is troubling their heart, to lift up the troubles of loved ones, the troubles in the community or the troubles in the world...these troubles are written on leaves. As our journey through Lent brings us closer to Easter, the tree is gradually blooming with dangling leaves. As I was hanging the leaves tonight, I was struck by a certain paradox. These construction paper leaves are wispy like a warm summer breeze and yet they contain the weightiness of our collective hopes, disappointments, sorrows, fears, uncertainties, losses, failures, and brokenness. I was also struck by the honesty and openness that people have in sharing their burdens...anonymously. Reading these leaves was an important reminder for me about the heavy loads that each of us carry and how often we carry them alone, afraid to let down our guard, to show that we struggle, to admit that we might not have it all together after all. So in addition to being a place of healing, maybe this tree can also be a place of growing...of re-learning how to bear one another up, to walk with one another in our struggles, to honor and care for one another. The Apostle Paul writes, "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer...rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:9-15).