Redemption

It is mid-Lent, or late, even, in that solemn season. I came across this poem on The Writer's Alamanc for today and thought it appropriate - this is my 200th post, and almost everything I write is about redemption, forgiveness, the never-ending second chance. Hope and despair dwell within us, Lent is upon us with Easter looming - another resurrection, another Pasqueflower abloom in the woods, another sunrise awaiting.

In the heat of late afternoon...

by Gary Young

In the heat of late afternoon, lightning streaks from a nearly
cloudless sky to the top of the far mesa. At dusk, the whole south
end of the valley blazes as the clouds turn incandescent with
some distant strike. There is a constant congress here between
the earth and the sky. This afternoon a thunderstorm crossed the
valley. One moment the ground was dry, and the next there were
torrents running down the hillsides and arroyos. A quarter-mile off
I could see a downpour bouncing off the sage and the fine clay
soil. I could see the rain approach, and then it hit, drenching me,
and moved on. Ten minutes later I was dry. The rain comes from
heaven, and we are cleansed by it. Suddenly the meaning of baptism
is clear to me: you can begin again, and we are saved every day.