"Return" | Reflection by Paige Nelson, Director of Children & Family Ministry

I used to think of “return” as to “go back” or “give back”... but the more I think about it, Return is to “turn again”.

After Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, God promised a way to return to Him—a way to turn again to Him. When the world seemed full of wickedness, God promised Noah a way to turn again to Him—to renew and rebuild.

But it was not the same world that had been before.

To return to God is not to go back to what we were but to turn again to God: to walk forward with God, renewed and refreshed.

“Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return:” That “dust” is the sacred, pure positive energy from which we came. And to it we will turn again—just think: Within each human lies a nation; within each acorn lies a forest.

We can always turn again to God and find ourselves renewed—and changed. Jesus tells us that “For where your treasure is, there shall your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). And the greater the investment, the greater the return indeed!

And so, this Lent, I am considering a return to God in the renewal of that energy—that Godforce—that gives life and love. It is a treasure that says “I am enough” in a world that where scarcity abounds and hope dims. God calls us now to turn again to Him and trust that He is enough and our treasure is safe with Him. Let us be changed and renewed for a better world to come.

Words in the Wilderness - Walk through the season of Lent with Trinity, one word at a time. Every day (except on Sundays) we will post a photo and a brief refection written by someone in our Trinity community. https://www.trinitynewhaven.org/words-in-the-wilderness