Giving something up is a traditional practice of the season, but often we do not venture past giving up something like chocolate or wine. Perhaps God wants us to give up something more significant, and more importantly, perhaps God wants us to give up these things in order to make room for something better, more impactful… God’s steadfast love in Jesus Christ. So this Lent, let’s give up hubris for humility and greed for gratefulness. Throughout these 40 days, let’s give it up for Lent so our hearts can grow closer to Christ!
Giving up Seeking the Wrong Shelter for Christ’s Open Arms
Though we sometimes doubt and often resist God’s protection, our God persists. Jesus’ metaphor of being the mother hen who protects her chicks is deepened by his calling Herod a fox. A hen is a peculiar choice, but a mother hen will resolutely stand to shield her chicks from the fox who wants to snatch them: if he wants to get them, he’ll have to kill her first. At the end of Lent, we will remember that a fox did indeed kill the mother hen on a hill outside Jerusalem, and the chicks scattered. In holy baptism, God’s people have been called and gathered by God, and so we look to Easter, when the hen will rise from the empty tomb to gather all her chicks under her wings once more.
image: Hen sheltering chicks by Mak_photo. Copyright © Getty Images Plus via Getty Images. Used by permission.