As I began my journal entry early this morning, I started to write Feb…then caught myself. This month is gone. Good-by February! Hello March with green grass and daffodils popping up. The birds are beginning to sing and get excited for spring. I think I love spring most simply because it follows winter. Winter has its own beauty but by this time, I am tired of drab white and brown. The red of the male cardinal offers a bit of color as an accent against winter’s bland background. But spring…it is a riot of color, too much sometimes for the eye to bear because we are not used to it. The days are getting longer and the temperatures just a little warmer. I can feel it coming.
One of my favorite passages in the Old Testament comes from Isaiah 43:18-19, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” I have turned to these verses when going through barrenness, traveling through deserts, in my own life. When I was first divorced, nearly 20 years ago now, God gave me hope through these very words. I could see the hints of change, of new growth and renewal, if I looked closely. God was doing a new thing.
Spring always serves as a sign to us of hope and renewal. No matter how hard or barren the landscape seems, there is new life just under the surface. Can you not perceive it? God waters what seems to be dead and brings it to life. Do you have eyes to see it spring forth?
