Wittenberg Community,
This past weekend, Christians around the world celebrated the end of Lent on Maundy Thursday and the Tridium, the holy weekend from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. We are also nearing the end of Passover, the Jewish commemoration of the Exodus, God leading the people of Israel out of slavery and, ultimately, into the Promised Land. And all around us in Springfield, Ohio, there are signs of spring: the trees are in bloom, tulips abound, and daffodils poke through the grass. (Our tremendous grounds crew always ensures Wittenberg looks its best, no matter the season, so we offer our thanks.) We are also one month away from finals and, for our seniors, graduation. This is a season of transitions.
One of the remarkable lessons that is shared during Easter and Passover, applicable to anyone regardless of faith, is that even when we have been delivered from one difficult or challenging situation, we may still need a time of reflection and growth before we fully appreciate what we have come through. The Israelites still had 40 years, a full generation, to endure in the wilderness before they would enter the land that God had promised. For Christians, the resurrection of Jesus is the sign that death has finally been defeated, sins forgiven, and eternal life is theirs. Yet the world continues to spin with all the suffering, wars, hunger, and hardship that it has always had. We live, like the Israelites at Kadesh Barnea, in the "already, not yet." These so-called "wilderness times" are often when we are growing and learning the most.
College can feel an awful lot like that. It is a time set apart from the rest of life, a time to grow, learn, and make mistakes with (one hopes) a heavy dose of grace. In the last two and a half months, I have traveled around the country to meet with alumni from the 1960s to just a few years out, and they all look back on this special time in life while still confronting the challenges of the present day. Even when we are most discouraged or feeling lost, like we are wandering in a wilderness, it is a time of growth. The truth is, we always have the opportunity to grow, even late in the season.
As the world of the northern hemisphere comes into bloom, I pray that you, too, will find green growth in your own life. With that in mind, I leave you this time with a poem by Wittenberg's own Georgie Harter MacPherson titled "Elfin Spring."*
Spring is playing over the hill,
Her laughter like the robin鈥檚 trill,
Dandelion and daffodil
Filling her arms no longer bare.
Over the earth in golden light
She dances like some joy-mad sprite.
Weary at dusk, she rests, and night
Sets for a jewel the moon in her hair.
Yours,
Christian M. M. Brady, DPhil (Oxon.)
President
*MacPherson, Georgia Harter. Then Comes Song. Dallas: Kaleidograph Press, 1939.
From Tom Taylor's entry for #WittHistory: "Georgia graduated from Wittenberg in 1921, a member of Euterpian Society and author of the class pageant that launched the festivities that culminated in Rees Tuloss鈥檚 inauguration on Nov. 26, 1920. 鈥eorgia joined the Wittenberg faculty in 1922, teaching French, and later English, until 1967."