Welcome to Lent. This season gets a bad rap, as far as I’m concerned. It has a penitential tone, to be sure, but there’s also that gentle, earnest invitation from God right at the onset of this season, “Even now . . . return to me with your whole heart” (Joel 2:12). Even now. Even now, while we’re coming up on a year of the pandemic and all the fear and illness, financial distress, extreme togetherness/forced isolation that came with it. Even now, in the dead of winter, when, in the Northern hemisphere, many of us are weary of cold and darkness. Even now, in this moment, just as I am – tired but restless, a little lonely and cooped up. Even now, God seeks me out, and seeks you too. Even now, God wants us to return to God with our whole hearts.

As we continue to schlep through the pandemic, it’s hard to remember that God has seen others through their own disasters, but God has. In the First Reading this Sunday, we’re privy to a conversation between God and Noah and his family. This happens after they’ve finally been able to disembark from the ark where they lived while the flood destroyed the rest of the world. God makes a covenant with them, promising never again to allow a flood to wipe everything out. God gives them a rainbow as a sign of this covenant, which, I hope, reassures them.

It reassures me too, actually. The God whom I’ve come to know and love is a God of rainbows, not destruction. That’s the faith in which I was raised, and the faith my community, friends, and mentors have cultivated in me. My own prayer and walking with people in ministry have also shown me the God of Love. Sometimes bad things just happen. Even Jesus was tempted for forty long days in the desert and was not spared from loss, persecution, trial, and execution. Jesus had plenty of heartbreak in his short life. Did God cause it? I just can’t think so. Our Christian faith, as I experience it, holds the paradox that God is all-loving and people suffer; both are true.

Our pandemic can seem, at times, like a rather biblical catastrophe. I’ve heard people say that it’s a punishment from God or a lesson God is teaching us. I understand that they’re trying to make sense of the suffering around us, and sometimes I struggle to make sense of it too. It’s in these difficult times when I have to dig down into my faith and remind myself that, even now, God is a God of love and not destruction. Do we have things that we can learn from the pandemic? Sure. I know I already have, and when it’s over I expect to learn even more as I examine it from the safe distance of hindsight. But the pandemic was caused by a terribly virulent and crafty virus, and it was made worse by the inequity that already existed in our society. People sometimes dealt with it in helpful ways and sometimes didn’t. God has promised to never again destroy life on the planet, and as it turns out, humans are doing a pretty good job of destroying it ourselves. That doesn’t seem like God’s fault to me.

Maybe after Noah and his family finally set foot on dry land after their traumatic and rather confusing voyage, they also wondered if God was punishing them, even as God was saving them. They had been confined indefinitely on the boat with each other and too many pets (which may sound familiar, minus at-home schooling). But God showed up and reassured them, even giving them a sign in the sky. You know what would be nice right about now? If God would give us a sign too. Here’s the thing about a sign from God – you have to notice it. Noah and his fam could have seen the rainbow and disregarded it. A rainbow. Big deal. But it was a big deal. It was a sign of the covenant.

The kinds of signs that God sends me are subtle too. Sometimes a sign of God’s care is a sunset or a thoughtful text, something that means something to me. One sign that I still remember happened years ago when I first arrived for grad school at Creighton in Omaha, Nebraska. I was a nervous wreck, but as I stood at the desk in the dorm rifling through my stuff to find what I needed to check in, I happened to notice the song playing on the radio. “Omaha,” by the Counting Crows. A small thing, maybe. But what are the chances of that song coming on the radio at the moment I arrived in Omaha? I felt like God was winking at me, whispering, “Don’t worry. I’ve got you.” I kind of wanted to laugh and cry with relief. I’m so glad I noticed.

God is a God of rainbows, not destruction. If you need a sign to reassure you, go ahead and ask. Maybe, if you stop to notice, you’ll see that there’s a sign from God right in front of you. Our God who loves us always wants to assure us. Even now.

For reflection:

• Has God ever given you some kind of sign, something that caused you to notice God’s presence and God’s care? What was that like? How did you react?

• Have you ever been a sign to someone else of God’s love? How did that feel?

• When you’re going through a hard time, where is God in that, and what is God like?

By Sister Leslie Keener, CDP

Leslie is the director of God Space, a community-building spirituality ministry in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. She’s a Sister of Divine Providence with a Masters in Ministry and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction and Retreats from Creighton University. She directs retreats, meets with people for spiritual direction, and serves as the vocation director for her community. She also serves on the Coordinating Council of Spiritual Directors International. She enjoys music, dancing, and meaningful conversations.