Today’s lesson from the Hebrew scriptures speaks, on one level, of the Easter promise. The season of Lent provides the opportunity for us to refocus our priorities so that we might be prepared for the new creation that comes with the Resurrection of Christ Jesus.

Trusting in God’s promise, Abram and Sarai, had left their settled secure family and homeland to walk into a new life with the Holy One. Their journey in faith led to today’s covenant story with their new names, Abraham and Sarah, as a sign of God’s transforming work in their lives, a confirmation that they were ready to move beyond their barrenness and live into God’s promise of being exceedingly fruitful.

Walking with the Holy One does indeed bring new life and enables us to become exceedingly fruitful in our lives today, as impossible as that may seem. To be ready for the new creation God longs to bring forth from us, we have to let go of all the things we have allowed to separate us from the Divine. The self-examination we are called to make during Lent opens our eyes to see just what that might be, all the ways we have gone astray from Love, all the times we have missed the mark, all the idols that tempt us from centering our lives on our Oneness with God. Perhaps we might think of Lent as a time of preparing our fallow soil to accept the fertile seed God will use to bring us to exceeding fruitfulness.