Lent Means Spring
Yes it does. It’s from the same word that gives us the word “lengthen” as do the days at this time of year.
This year, we’re using the resource of the Johnston Terrace Wildlife Reserve and thinking about spring, the renewal of the natural world and personal renewal during Lent. We will be reading extracts from The Secret Garden and visiting the wildlife garden, keeping our eyes out for signs of spring. I’ve made a large poster which was blank other than the words “Lent Means Spring” but after our visit to the wildlife garden this morning, we’ve already added drawings of snowdrops, catkins, shoots of crocuses and daffodils, and tiny leaf buds on branches – around 1 milemetre long and not the kind of thing I would have noticed at all until Melly and Iris pointed them out to me. With spring rather late this year, the 
timing is perfect – it still feels like winter on this first Sunday of Lent, but if we open our eyes and look hard, the signs of spring are all around.
Hopefully the children will enjoy the story of sour Mary and spoilt Colin coming to life in the garden and the sense which the book gives of the sheer magic of spring. Moments of hope and renewal, like the one which the book is about, are central to my own adult Christian faith and it seems worthwhile to try and share some of that sense with the children.
