From Mountain to Valley

The colors of the liturgical calendar quietly and gently tell a story.
Green speaks of hope and growth.  The steady rhythm of Ordinary Time, that season of faithfully counting the days.  Purple carries the depth of royalty and justice, the holy weight of Lent, when the days lengthen, and our hearts are invited to do the same.   Together, green and purple mirror the movement we are making right now, from Ordinary Time into Lent.  If we are paying attention, the liturgical calendar is always guiding us. Color becomes a gentle signal for the soul, preparing us for the season we are entering before a single word is spoken.  The rhythm of the liturgical colors are a visual signal of a seasons mood.  

In some sense, our Lenten journey does not begin in the ashes. It begins on the mountain.  On Transfiguration Sunday, we witnessed Jesus radiant, standing fully in his power, recognized and named as Beloved by God.  It is easy to want to stay there.  In the brightness. In the wonder. In the warmth of belovedness shining. But the way of Jesus does not end on the mountaintop.  Lent begins the moment we choose to walk with him back down into the valley.

Long before the mountain, our human story began in another place of beauty and holy threshold. The garden.  Eden was at first, a place of deep comfort and curiosity. It also required a first step into the unknown.  The pattern is both ancient and familiar with these colors and stories.  
Green to purple.  Mountain to valley. Garden to the unknown.
Faith has always been a journey of movement.  Not away from God, but more deeply within God.

Lent begins with holy noticing.  This season quietly asks:
Where am I being called?
Who am I listening to?
Where is God still walking beside me?
Because even in the valley or the wilderness or the unknown, a sacred whisper remains:
You are beloved.  Not only on the mountain.  Not only in the garden. But on every step of the valley road.   Faith formation is not only about what we know or believe.  It is about how we walk.  How we move from comfort toward courage. From clarity toward trust.  From the familiar into the faithful unknown.  As the colors shift, as the season turns, and as Lent gently unfolds before us…
How will I walk?   How will you? ​

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Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7 (NRSVUE)
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”