Reflections on Life and Faith,
by David Keating

It's Always Darkest When?

March 2008

Okay, it's official. I am sick of winter. And don't bother telling me that this is Canada and we should expect lots of snow and cold weather. I've lived here all of my fifty some years. I remember winters when the snow buried the fences. I remember going back to where Dad and I cut firewood and seeing stumps that I'd cut as low as I could standing almost as high as my head. Yep, this has been an "old fashioned winter". I remember.

But I don't have to like it. And I don't.

I had just gotten used to the idea that global warming might actually have an upside. Now what am I supposed to think?

Alright, so I'm exaggerating a little bit. But only a little. Honest. February, after all, set snowfall records in this part of the country. And as I write, we're preparing for a bout of freezing rain followed by a warm spell. Can anyone spell "flooding"?

Lest I seem ungrateful, let me say that I realize that I live in a favoured part of the world. The climate is usually pretty reasonable, and the politics is pretty bland. Sorry, doesn't help at the moment.

However, this little taste of the winters of old got me thinking about the lives of those who came before us. Long before us. At a time when surviving winter wasn't at all a certain thing. When seeing a groundhog's shadow didn't have anything to do with municipal officials dressed in top hats and tails. When the accuracy of its prediction might very well be a matter of life and death.

Food stored for the winter was getting well past its expiry date. Meat was hard to come by. Cattle weren't giving milk. Sure the days were getting longer, but I think that just might have been more maddening than helpful. After all, it’s a long way from an extra few minutes of sunlight to fresh tomatoes on the vine.

So the season of Lent, with its focus on sacrifice, was perfectly timed for the mood of the people.

Today, most of us are pretty well insulated from the dangers our ancestors faced. We seldom miss dessert, let alone a meal. One of our biggest complaints is the length of the line at the drivethru at Tim Horton's.

Perhaps that also one of the reasons that Lent isn't what it used to be. Giving up chocolate or cigarettes or movie night for forty days just doesn't seem to be in the same league as giving up eating altogether.

The Christian calendar squeezes everything that happened in Jesus' life into just about three months. It doesn't matter whether you take the Bible literally, consider it myth and metaphor, or fall somewhere in between. For most people, all the important stuff happens between Christmas and Easter. And Lent takes up about a third of that time. No wonder Christianity is often seen as so morbid.

We need to remember that two of the three major events in the Christian faith are positive and life affirming. The birth of Emmanuel, "God with us", celebrates the presence of God, not in some distant heaven, but right here with you and me and everyone in Creation.

And Easter celebrates the reality that nothing on Earth can destroy our relationship with God.

A long winter is coming to an end. A time of renewal and rebirth is almost here.

That's something worth hearing, even if our fridge is full.