Anticipating Creation
By Kathy Hart
The world is blanketed by snow, pristine and cold.
Unwilling, I shovel it, mixing the mud beneath with its brilliant whiteness.
Then drudgery turns to joy, as I find sprouting bulbs that produce
tiny star-like flowers in March, harbingers of Spring’s new creations.
My mind wanders with hope of things to come.
Later, I rehearse for a performance of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Creation, the Genesis story
embellished and amazingly grand in scope.
So taken is the composer with the story, that we sing of the sun proud and joyful to
run its course, the flowers’ jeweled charm, birds’ fluttering plumage, and leviathans on the
foaming wave.
The music transports us to a new world of hope and praise.
Snow remains, but I plan and plot my summer vacation—
the trip to Alaska I’ve dreamed of since 1958.
I will walk on glaciers, hike in the tundra, spot an eagle’s nest, glimpse plants and animals only
familiar from books and nature videos.
The unimaginable awe of God’s creation will be revealed during 20 hours of daylight for 13 days.
I shovel, I sing, I plan a trip, and
I carefully choose the music of Lent, Holy Week and Easter.
On Ash Wednesday we begin a prayerful sojourn with Christ for 40 days.
The music will carry us through a time of meditation,
a boisterous Palm Sunday joy-ride
a painful last supper
an excruciating crucifixion
death and dormancy
and finally resurrection.
The metaphor resonates: “Love will come again, like wheat that springeth green.”
The journey with Christ renews us, and WE become a new creation.
Kathy Hart
Kathy Hart is the Director of Music at Greenwood Community Church, Presbyterian in Warwick, RI, where she is organist and directs the Chancel Choir, a teen/adult handbell group, and an elementary singing/ringing choir. She writes/arranges sacred music and is a soprano in The Providence Singers. Kathy has been a member of Central’s Caring/Sharing Group for several years.