spring Archives -

When Did We Stop?

May 14, 2016October 15, 2018

When did we stop?

When did we stop walking through our lives with wonder?

Looking for the next amazing thing?

Seeking out another delight?

Expecting a miracle around the corner?

A bunny in the bushes?

That we’d surely see…while wearing shockingly purple glasses with no lenses….just because?

When did we stop dancing through life knowing the wonderful was coming?

The promise of it has always been there.

Let’s reawaken our souls to it today.

However far back we need to go, let’s go there. Let’s go back to when we simply accepted that there was so much we didn’t know, and we just trusted, and lived in awe.

You visit the earth and water it,
make it abundantly fertile.
God’s stream is filled with water;
you supply their grain.
Thus do you prepare it:
you drench its plowed furrows,
and level its ridges.
With showers you keep it soft,
blessing its young sprouts.
You adorn the year with your bounty;
your paths drip with fruitful rain.
The meadows of the wilderness also drip;
the hills are robed with joy.
The pastures are clothed with flocks,
the valleys blanketed with grain;
they cheer and sing for joy.

-Psalm 65:10-14

Seeds for an Appropriate Time

April 5, 2016April 5, 2016

On a bright spring morning, a walk does my spirit good. And as I circle my block, I come across her garden.

I can almost see her standing there in the shadow of her home, wearing spring pastels and kelly green tennis shoes, pointing out weeds and asking her husband to pull them. Her white hair shines like a crown in the sun. Her eyes dance and her arms wave a happy hello as I walk up her front path.

But she’s been gone to heaven for some time now. And her husband, too – last June. I still miss them – just as much as I did the day I learned that Mr. Schab had at last followed his wife Home.

So I stand looking at Mrs. Schab’s garden. Her flowers are beginning to bloom.

First, I see a single red tulip.

Then the blue vinca minor (periwinkle).

Then the viburnum.

And her bright pink azaleas.

Colorful, vibrant life springs from the brown, hard earth.

I seldom see their family visiting the house anymore. I suppose it’s been mostly cleaned out.

But you can’t remove everything that’s been planted, deep in fertile soil. You can’t strip it all – even from ground that appears, on the surface, to be nothing but weeds.

The garden renews my hope in the Promise. That with God’s help, our tiny seeds of peace and love – in our families, communities, nation, the world – will surely blossom into something beautiful, when the appropriate time comes.

As the earth brings forth its plants,

and a garden makes its growth spring up,

So will the Lord God make justice and praise

spring up before all nations.

-Isaiah 61:62

Awaken to Change

April 10, 2015

I wonder how many people in my part of the world noticed the change in the atmosphere today. Despite the gauzy rain and cloudless sky, the land was brighter. A miracle happened last night. As far as my eye could see, every single forsythia plant bloomed sometime between dusk and dawn.

I drove around town marveling at the sight of it. Never mind that I can’t breathe (and it might just be because of this plant, or a brand-new cold, I’m not yet sure). My eyes are clear and wide-open, taking in this handiwork – which happened while you and I slept.

Millions of yellow flowers on thousands of plants opened themselves in unison to the world – bright beacons of hope to remind us that while today there is drizzle, tomorrow the sun is coming….Yellow and gold, warm, and refreshing, ushering in a light-filled season after a long period of cold, grayish days.

My heart and soul understand the forsythia’s message, awaken to the change, and respond….

Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
announce his salvation day after day.

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them.
Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice
before the Lord who comes,
who comes to govern the earth,
To govern the world with justice
and the peoples with faithfulness.

– Psalm 96: 1-2, 11-13