In the end, Lenten practices are about releasing what is lesser and opening your hands for a deeper, fuller experience of God’s grace.

If the fasting of Lent is meant to prepare us for the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection, then the feasting of Eastertide is meant to prepare us for life in the new creation where we will experience the fullness of the never-ending abundance and joy of God’s presence.

Tomorrow marks the start of the Christian New Year. But this new year comes in not with a bang, but with a groan. Not with goal setting and a good decluttering, but with deep longing.

Yet this day of ash and repentance and bread and wine speaks to my soul that though I am fatally limited, I am also infinitely loved. And so I bear the ashy cross on my head in humility and sorrow but also in hope, for it is not the dirt that will have the final word, but the precious blood of Christ.

During the season of Epiphany, we remember that just as God revealed his glory, goodness, and light by a star to guide the Wise Men to the feet of Christ, our lives also shine his light, reflect his love, and hold out his hope to the weary in a dark world.

This Epiphany, as we’ve soaked up the stories of the visit of the wise men, Jesus’s presentation at the temple, his baptism, miraculous healings, and his transfiguration, I have been so struck by the tangibility, the physicality of God’s glory and light revealed in Christ. It means something that Jesus has a face with actual eyes that people could actually look into to know that they are loved, safe, valued. And that God-made-man could also receive love from the faces of those who loved him.