In 1988 there was a devastating fire in Yellowstone National Park. Almost two thousand square miles were impacted by the fire. A Park Ranger looking over the ash strewn landscape lamented that a generation would not know the park in all its beauty. He could not have been more wrong. The next year the park was ablaze with wildflowers. With all of the underbrush burned away the flowers found space to thrive. From that experience the Park Service learned that burning away the old was necessary for the birth of the new. That serves as analogy for our ash strewn heads on Ash Wednesday. Our Lenten practices, “what we give up,” are meant to rid us of all that impedes our new growth in God.
MARCH12017
By Church Staff
