As Easter moves each year we always get a different set of dates that fit each significant day. I think there is something meaningful about Ash Wednesday clashing with Valentine’s Day and Easter Sunday falling on April Fool’s Day this year, but that is a blog for another day – maybe in 40 days time!
The other clash is that of Student Sunday with the first Sunday in Lent. This Sunday, churches across the nation will be reading Mark 1:9-15 (or Mark 1:12-15 in Catholic churches), and hopefully some of them will also be praying for students, using the SCM Student Sunday resources and raising money for the important work of SCM.
When we look at that Mark passage we see it start with the baptism of Jesus. The proclamation “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” is heard from heaven. This Student Sunday we are focusing on God’s Gifts. Thinking of the gift of Jesus, the gift of creation, the gift of each other, but also the gift we are given from God to share with the world.
I wonder what your gifts are? What you have to offer to the world? Not that we can earn God’s love, but that God may look at us, using our gifts and being the people we were created to be, and God can proclaim over us “You are my child, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
So, share your gifts this Lent. This Student Sunday; pray for students all over the world and closer to home, and if you can donate to SCM to support us in our work in helping students to use their gifts.
Rach