Start Over

 

The Lake, on this 24th day of February, is free of ice. This picture and the one on the last blog were taken last week when what ice left on the Lake was being driven down into our cove by the wind out of the northwest. I didn't want to let the season pass without recording this picture which I find to be an optical illusion. The ice is flat, but it looks as if it is being swept up into a sort of plateau.
I also wanted to use the disappearing ice as a symbol of Lent. "Lent" is an old English word for spring, related to "lengthen," referring to the days' growing longer. It's a time of new life, of starting over. God melts our hard hearts.
The story of Noah and the Flood is a story about God's willingness to always start over with our human race. No matter how much sin we've spread around, no matter how much of a mess we've made of God's world, God never gives up on us. This is the eternal truth captured by the myth.
In Genesis 9:1-17 God is talking about a new creation. He says to Noah and his sons, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." This is exactly what God tells the Man and the Woman in the first creation story (1:28.) God tells Noah and his sons how precious life is and makes the first covenant with human beings. God promises that the earth will never again be destroyed by a flood. God gives the rainbow as the symbol of this promise. Divine Mercy and Love is always ready to start over with mankind.