Ahhhh Spring!

I do love living where we have all four seasons! I will admit I am sometimes ready for one to transition to another before it is time… but that anticipation… is part of what makes it so special once that transition finally begins!

I doubt even the most devote winter lover… has not looked out on one of those lingering cold days;… where the snow is melting, patchy, dirty… and anything not frozen is mired in a muddy mess;… and not thought… OK, ENOUGH ALREADY!

Spring can seem like a salvation… especially for those that dread winter instead of embracing it. And I doubt anyone can debate just what a glorious transformation Spring can bring! After all… it really does symbolize birth/rebirth… growth… new opportunities.

This type of symbolism abounds in this world. And most know I do not believe that is just by coincidence. I believe it is incorporated into a grand design… to provide inspiration when it is needed most.

Have you ever looked at just how tiny and fragile a single flower is on a redbud tree? Or maybe just studied the intricate detail of a single Dwarf Iris (tiny lawn flower/weed)? Then stepped back… and watched as you expand your scope of observation? To witness how those single tiny… seemingly insignificant things… combine to create such large, bold splashes of color and beauty into our world?... And truly appreciated how such tiny things can illuminate entire landscapes?

Not to mention the smell/aroma of some of the springs flowering trees/bushes/plants! Especially on one of those still evenings… after a passing spring shower! It can be intoxicating.

How can you look upon this situation in our natural world… and not begin to contemplate that you too serve some role in a greater good? Is it possible that even in the midst of feeling small and insignificant… that I may be part of something more? Maybe even contribute to some sort of greater purpose?

Similar are the struggles some things face in the spring. Ever watched a bunch of tulips fight there way up through a pile of sticks… carelessly thrown on top of their bulbs? Or the tree clinging to the river bank or cliff by just a couple of roots… but still greening up in the spring… to produce seeds by fall? We too have an incredible inner resilience!  This often becomes most apparent… when we feel we are at our weakest. Yet we are not intended to face these challenges alone! We are all meant to work together like the sun and the breeze… the bud and the bee!

“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you?” (Luke 12: 27-28)(similar to Matthew 6:28–30)

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” (1 Corinthians 12: 4-14)

If you have not found a church home… or at least a group of like minded people of community/hope/faith… I pray you find one! We are all toes or fingers… meant to be part of a foot or hand. Our families and friends are part of that! But there is still more!

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

Know too… he actively seeks you… “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Psalm 133:1)