At the Summer House in Twilight 1895

Take a deep look. Is that a first star above the dark tree on the left? It is twilight: "Starlight, star-bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight." Remember that? Levitan loved this time of day - the time of two lights. Morning twilight: moving from darkness to light. Evening twilight: moving from light to darkness. 

Twilight is an in-between time. It is the time which suggests we're at the door or the threshold of something new. But notice this: the trees, the grass, even the sky, are more an impression holding the most important piece, the bright center of the summer-house porch, wordlessly offering this lovely invitation: step up, enter this place, pull up a chair, rest and commune in this re-assuring light.

I'm thinking of the Easter scene: It is Sunday. Twilight. The apostles have been speaking with the stranger on the long road to Jerusalem and then: 

When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on; but they pressed him to stay with them saying, "It is nearly evening, and the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them." Luke 24:28,29

Yesterday I found this on the side of my oatmeal box: "If you have time to cook on the stove..." followed by instructions for cooking oatmeal on the stove top which takes 4 minutes. If you have time?! YIKES! is it that bad that we have to preface a four minute meal preparation with "If you have time?" Well then, maybe the thing we might give up for Lent is the mad rush which keeps us from accepting Levitan's twilight invitation to join him on this porch of light. 

Maybe we will experience some interior soul-surprise there. Levitan has left the paint a little thin on the fir tree to the right making the tree seem to sparkle. Can I use that word to describe my inner life - sparkle? 

I've posted the Summer House in Twilight EXTRA LARGE, so we can feel it. If you're looking at it on a phone, be kind to yourself and find a larger screen at some point today.

P.S. If you don't know where this Lenten-Levitan "program" is coming from, scroll back to February 26 for an introduction.