February 9 - John 3 on the Doorway to Lent

I've been encouraged by a friend to dust off the blog and get back to writing for this.  So here we go.
As far as I can tell, February 9 will not be the day before Ash Wednesday again in my lifetime, but John 3 seems like an extremely fitting text on which to leave Epiphany and enter Lent.  Nicodemus, in the darkness, has the Light of the World revealed to Him.  As we follow Jesus to the darkness of Good Friday, He will be revealed to be the Son of God given by the Father to save us from perishing when He is lifted up on a pole like the bronze serpent of Moses.

(Oh, and I always feel bad about leaving Job where he is at in the middle of the story in the Treasury.  Some years I've added the end of his saga to my daily Lenten devotions just to get to his salvation.  Or at least chapter 19.  I wonder if we get to the end of Job in 2038.)