So begins our Lent with the words from scripture “Come back to me with all your heart.”  Certainly God is expressing this longing to each of us today as the events of the past year may have pulled and pushed us in so many directions that may be far from God.  So Lent is that invitation.  It is a call to come back and return to something we once knew – or perhaps something we have never known.  It is a welcome reminder, a welcome invitation, a welcome homecoming.  Finding our way back, or our way into, a deeper relationship with God is a process.  It is meant to take some time – and so, we have six weeks to make that journey.

The Lenten journey allows us the time to examine our lives and our hearts.  It invites us to begin again to establish a stronger bond with our God, who loves us so very much, and whose presence we know and experience in a multiplicity of ways throughout our days and our experiences.

As I walked past four different pairs of lovers this morning on their way to classes at American U,  I had a thought.  These couples walked hand in hand, smiling; one young woman even leaning her head over on her lover’s chest as they shared a laugh together as they walked.  It made me think that perhaps that is what God is inviting us into this Lent.  Perhaps God would like us to place our hand in God’s as we walk throughout our days and to open our hearts to a lover’s exploration.  Perhaps we are being invited to open our hearts to explore all that God is, while we also simultaneously open our hearts to let ourselves be explored by God.

It’s a thought.  It could be grace.  It’s Lent.  Why not give it a try?