Do You Have a Theme Song for Lent?
Devotional by Ellyn Wilkoff
(as written to her granddaughter)
Lent is a season of “less of” in order to seek “more of” Jesus’ influence over our lives. I am crafting a “go to” thought in the form of a theme song to refocus my attention. This especially helps when I experience run away thoughts.
2/6/23
Dear Mya,
I am praying today for a fresh and renewed experience of our Great God’s purpose for our lives. I am reflecting on a piece of music I heard on the radio last summer. It has both a Cleveland and a Chicago connection, both cities you have visited. The song’s lyrics come from a poem by Langston Hughes, a Clevelander. Chicagoan, Margaret Bonds, first discovered his poetry in the library while she was a student at Northwestern. Hughes’s first poetry collection was published in 1926 (the year my mother was born). It was called The Weary Blues.
Bonds and Hughes became friends and wrote the song “When the Dove Enters In” collaboratively around 1960. The last line of the chorus reads “With Prayer as the Healer, when the Dove Enters In.” This thought helps me “settle in” to pray. I simply have to take a look at God affirming Jesus at Jesus’ baptism. The Dove that came at the conception announcement that Jesus was going to be born came again.
God’s voice and the poetic presence of the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove served as equipment for Jesus to continue in the pathway God had laid out for him. Matthew 3:17 “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” precedes Matthew 4:1 which says, “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted/tested by the devil.”
Wow, do I need prayer when a big switch like that comes into my life. How do we remember the truth of God’s loving, guiding hand when things on our path are unfamiliar? Hopefully we have communion with our God through prayer and relying on the Holy Spirit.
Maybe Jesus sang songs in the wilderness? Maybe he created a rhythm with his footsteps? What do you feast in, Mya, in order to prove God is your helper in times of testing or trial? Hopefully you will find spiritual practices and pathways to inform your prayers for divine help.
Much love, — Nana