A few days ago I realized that almost all my assignments at Lehigh are due on the day after Easter. Company is coming for the holidays as well. The last two weeks of Lent suddenly become less a contemplative journey through the desert and more a mad rush to get everything done. I feel as if I am back working in a church!

Outside, the sun is shining, birds are singing, and spring green is starting to softly spread back over the earth. Inside, seeds are sending forth green shoots beneath the grow lights. In the sound and in the silences, life and hope surround me, and God’s presence does too, sustaining me just as air and water and sun sustain the emerging plants.

Lord, amidst the business of these days, help me to pray and to breathe in your Love, so that I may have the strength to make it to the end of this long race. Amen.

-Kathleen Knaack