Luke took this picture at the National Arboretum recently and it fits beautifully with the Lenten Day of Prayer that I went to last weekend.
The theme of the retreat was stripping ourselves bare like winter trees that we would be fully present to God and receive new life. The church had woodcut and installation artwork displayed by Margaret Adams Parker and our facilitator/yoga instructor read through this beautiful poem by Maggie Lindgren.
February Trees
I find
yearly cause for
wonder as I watch them
stretching upward, etching on the
empty
dismal
winter sky their
delicate detail. What
sap is it that warms them as they
stand there
naked yet resolved? I
catch my breath to think what
such an annual dismantling
might do
to me.
Personally, I sensed God directing me to John the Baptist's words in John 3:30, "He must become greater, I must become less." It also gave me renewed appreciation for the purposes of winter so that I have a better attitude going into the "spring tease" that is the month of March.
It was a really rich and peaceful time and I'm thankful to Luke for hanging with the kids all day so that I could do it.
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