Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time...it's always the beginning to a great story.  We all love a good story, one that grabs us and holds our attention all the way to the end, one that comes to some resolution that stays with us, whether it is a fairy-tale ending for a character portrayed as an "underdog" or one that leaves us with a sense of deep and profound loss or disappointment with which we must wrestle and live into ourselves.  We all love a good story.  I actually watched the last game of the Final Four last night.  I have no emotional attachment to either team.  (My "emotional attachment" dropped from the bracket several wrungs ago.)  But I really wanted Butler to win.  It's just a better story.  Like I said, we like it when the underdog makes good.

The truth is, we all have a story.  Yes, our lives are veritable short stories within themselves.  But there's something bigger.  There's THE story.  You know, the one that begins, "Once upon a time there was heaven and earth, covered in darkness, until God brought light into being.  And then God filled this light-filled Creation with life--seeds that would yield growth, seasons that would bring rhythm into being, and living creatures to bring beauty and companionship and even sustenance to this light-filled place.  It was beautiful and life-filled and good.  And then God created the ultimate of creations--one who carried the very image of God within itself, one who could care for Creation and love Creation and be light.  God blessed it all and then God ceased creating.  And God looked at all of Creation and crowned it with the Holy and the Sacred, giving it just a glimpse of what it could become.  And God called that glimpse, the pinnacle of all time, "Sabbath"."  (OK, so I took a little poetic license with the Scripture!)  The point is, it's our story.  We were not created as individuals separate and apart from the story.  We were created as parts of the story.

Lent is a time to remember that, to remember that it's not all about me, to remember that the story itself and all of its characters are bigger than the sum of all of us.  Lent is a time to realize that we are part of story that began long before we got here and that will continue long after we are gone and yet, we have always been a part of the story and always will be.  Lent is a time to let go of those individual wants and needs to which we hold so tightly, to let go of our need for our "story" to come out in a certain way, and to let THE story--OUR story grab us and take hold of our lives.  It is a mutual story but we all have a chapter to write, to write and then hand off to another, all without disrupting the story.  It is true that we don't really know the ending, but my guess is that we all live happily ever after!

So, in this Lenten season, enter the story and find what chapter is yours to write!

Grace and Peace,

Shelli

Had to add this...even though they dropped early!