God created a beautiful, watered garden that can produce all we need to satisfy our needs. Yet, for most of us, it is not enough. We live in a consumerist society where many are not satisfied with the springs of water that God continues creating within us, much less with what God’s garden produces. Our selfish and greedy desire for more and more has caused a drought within us and in God’s garden.
Many people around the world are directly affected by the drought God’s garden is experiencing. Many people are being forced to leave their home countries and their loved ones because the land that once had plenty of springs of water is drought now and does not satisfy their immediate needs anymore.
The painful reality many people are experiencing as a result of climate change reminds us of our inherent relationship with God’s garden and, most importantly, of our divine calling to take care of all God’s creation. “The garden is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and all who live in it.” (Psalm 24:1) Therefore, every action we take to take care of God’s beloved garden and to show our love for our neighbors is an act of worship to God that creates a spring of water within us.
Prayer
May our fast this Lent be watering your garden with our love and care.
May our fast this Lent be loosening the chains of injustice and untying the cords of the yoke.
May our fast this Lent be setting the oppressed free and breaking every yoke.
May our fast this Lent be sharing our food with the hungry and sheltering the poor wanderer.
May our fast this Lent be clothing the naked and accompanying the lonely.
May our fast this Lent be reviving the spring of water you create within us.
Amen.
Rev. Alma Tinoco-Ruiz is a faculty member at Duke Divinity School and the Director of the Hispanic House of Studies