St. Helen’s Daily Lenten Devotional
The wave, over the wave, a weird thing I saw,
through-wrought, and wonderfully ornate:
a wonder on the wave – water become bone.
Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Poem
Ice.
Required. For ice skating, curling, and a factor for all wintery activities.
Treacherous. A slip and fall can result in much pain or life altering realities.
Icy roads, and drivers in a hurry, cause untold car accidents, damages and injuries.
Beautiful. Ice sculptures, rendered intentionally by artists and by the Artist. Trees glistening in the sun. Icicles framing a roof line, their dripping a sign of the sun gaining in power. Fleeting beauty.
But what if our hearts have grown cold? Hardships, suffering, sorrow, loss… Life’s diverse problems can bring on a biting chill that affects us and every relationship. What if our hearts are frozen and thus not able to see the beauty around us, or that within other people or ourselves?
What does it mean to be warm-hearted? Does it not mean that person is one who is caring, considerate, supportive, empathetic and giving?
Can we pray for God to warm our hearts? To melt bitterness, despair, disappointment, cynicism and, with flowing love, bring spring to winter hardened souls?
“Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.” (Daniel Iveson)