Maybe you, like me, can tell when the winter is getting toooo-long. We start scanning roadsides, filled with mid-thigh-deep snow, hoping to see some signs of changes in the color of willows, or hoping to see signs that signal that the promise of spring is given again this year. Out and about this week, I found myself doing just that: Noticing signs of the promise God gives us that spring will come.
Maybe you have noticed too: vegetable and flower seeds are on display in the stores; ravens are flying overhead with twigs in their beaks, readying nests; and yes…the color of the willows is changing, slowly, but it is. And yes, morning light sneaks in the window earlier, and the dark holds off longer each day.
So even in the midst of “one-more” cold snap, one more snowfall, one more night with the furnace running too often, of hearing one more “this is just about enough winter” comment, we can latch onto what God’s creation in nature shows us: Spring is on the horizon.
Maybe part of all this is that in our own personal lives there are times when “a tough season” turns us inward, leaving us wondering if an “easier season” will arrive. As if we are buried so deeply in what weighs us down that we can’t slog our way out; as if our eyes are so accustomed to just one color across a landscape and nothing seems to break the stream of “mono-color” in our imaginations.
In our oh-so-human “waiting with longing” for springtime, God gives us ravens, flying overhead with twigs. God gives us willows, hinting that redder colors are coming. God gives warmer sun, melting patches of snow so that dirt roads and black asphalt are showing up and ice is melting to let the bluest blue waters of Lake Superior be seen.
And in our oh-so-human “waiting with longing” for a “tough season of life” to abate, God sends us others to care for, and others to care for us. God sends us the knowing that we must seek forgiveness, for part of what resides within us is knowing hurts we have caused families, friends, colleagues, selves.
God sends us the relief of hearing the Promises of God: “return to the Lord, your God…for he is gracious and merciful” (Joel 2); “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; in your great compassion… create in me a clean heart; O God, renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51).
Ah…. the promise of nature’s spring season is certain. In the midst of “a-walling-us-in-with-snow-winter,” spring will arrive. And with it, the return of brightly colored birds, the return of the deep green of “un-snow-covered” pines, the return of light green leaves suddenly popping out, the sudden appearance sooner than we imagine of brilliant yellow marsh-marigolds…
And to our so tender hearts and souls, hiding away thinking that there is not a true chance of the spring of God’s Grace for us? To us comes God’s goodness, and this beloved blessing: God, who fills the creation with abundance; Christ, who spreads his arms in forgiveness; Holy Spirit who draws ever near to us, bless us. Look outside, see spring arriving. Look inside, and remind yourself of God’s blessing bestowed. Newness, spring, Grace of God.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month our contributor is Pastor Kris Garey, Trinity Lutheran Church, Hovland.
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