In the Wilderness

Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested.

            I think that for many of us living in Northern New England February may feel like the wilderness.  We have our beautiful December winter; we welcome the snow and fill our kitchens with the scents and tastes of homemade soups and breads.  The holidays arrive and we look forward to the rest that January offers, with the energy of resolutions to back us up.  But then there is February, our wilderness.

            New snow is exciting to those on vacation but turns to grey and black too quickly.  Backs are sore from shoveling; everything that we forgot to put away for the winter now pokes its head out ----an unsightly reminder of our failure to take care of it in the first place.  Poor February, as if it doesn’t have trouble enough of its own, we are also reminded as we look at the snow that arrives and melts quickly of the flooded basements that are soon to come.

            The wilderness for Christ is the desert, for us it is the continuing landscape of grey snow and dark skies that come too early.  Whenever we are looking at the same thing at every turn for too long we may begin to feel like we are in the wilderness. 

Wilderness is defined at Wikipedia as: An uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region.  A neglected or abandoned area of a garden or town.

                February, the shortest month of the year can feel like the longest month of the year, and yet in the midst of the neglected or even abandoned areas of our lives March, April, and May are around the corner.  There will be a way out of the wilderness if we seize it.  The procrastination that has plagued us will diminish and the last of the Christmas decorations WILL be put away, the bill drawers will be cleared and there will be a temporary relief from the weight of fuel costs, seeds will be planted and as they enter the still cold ground they hold hope and promise for us.

            Before we know it the windows will be opened! 

Why must we enter the wilderness, why must we have Februaries in our lives?  There is no answer, except that occasionally we find ourselves there.  Often in the midst of all that is grey, all that closes in on us-- bringing the night too early, we must call on the Spirit within us to simply maintain. 

Again 
The silence doesn't mean that I'm alone 
As long as I can hear 
That I am still Your own.  In the Waiting, by Greg Long