Lent has begun. Forty days of spiritual preparation.  Getting ready for the Ash Wednesday services, a staff member came into the office and informed us that he had just found a cat in the sanctuary.  Stranger things have happened in my ministry.  At one church there were rats, at another there were bats, and now cats.   I don’t know how many “…ats” there are left to keep the rhyme going.  Strange things can happen when you leave a church door open.  Lost cats and even a few lost people often find there way in.   I have also discovered that even stranger things can happen when we leave a door to our heart open.  We may come face to face with grace, we may find redemption, and we could experience renewal.  Lent invites us to open the doors, both of the church and of our hearts, expect something to enter in and be ready for it when it does.