Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the forty days of Lent when we tighten our hold on the hand of God, and loosen it on the hand of worldly cares and our private demons.

There are several “forties” in the Bible, among them the forty days and nights of Moses on mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments from God (Exodus 20:1-17), the forty years in the wilderness by the whole nation of Israel, learning to be the people of God,(Numbers 14:34), Elijah’s journey to Mount Horeb for forty days and nights in order to meet with God, (1Kings 9:8), the forty days and nights in the wilderness by Jesus while being tempted by the devil, ( Matthew 4:2), and the forty days from the resurrection of Jesus to his ascension after establishing the church. (Acts 1:3).

All of these times are pivotal for Christians everywhere, and worth revisiting in Scripture during Lent. Each period of forty was a time of major growth in the spiritual relationship between God and His whole people, or between God and an individual, even between God and His own son Jesus. Each forty brought a closer, clearer relationship between God and person or persons, until at last Jesus gives the Holy Spirit, establishing the church.

It’s no wonder that the number forty for a time span came to mean a deepening of our love for God and our surrender and commitment to Him. It takes reflection and reminding to renew that “surrender”, and hence the many ways we celebrate Lent: eating fish on Friday (or any other day), sacrificing dessert, attending church services, reading the Bible, shedding our defensiveness or “touchiness”, increasing our kindness, and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable for forty days.

That Lent has survived for so many centuries suggests that Someone more than ourselves is in the mix, Someone who seeks the closeness that we seek, who looks for us even more than we look for Him, and who knows the “look” because He has it, too. He has said, “Ask”, “Seek,” “Knock” because He wants us to find Him. There is no better time ( and there is no bad time) to respond to Him than for forty days before glorious Easter.

Love in Him,

Prue