Lent

 

Every year I remind myself that the word "Lent" comes from an old English word for "springtime." I think it's related to the days' "lengthening." A time of more light and new life.
This is a new blossom on the bougainvillea that I brought inside for the winter. It was about ten inches tall when I bought it at the beginning of last summer. After re-potting, some of its branches grew during the summer to about four feet. The branches have thorns and are stretching in all directions. That made it hard to move inside. With difficulty I brought it upstairs so I could give it a south facing window. It took over the room that it's in. I'm not sure how I'm going to get it back outside. Most of the summer blossoms dropped off and some new ones have popped out. The trouble that I have gone to to give it extra sunlight has paid off with more growth and new blooming.
Maybe Lent will be like that for me. I pray that whatever trouble God goes to to bring me into more Light will produce in me new life. Springtime!