Is It Spring Yet?

I must confess that I am hungry for Spring. Especially with Easter falling so early this year, I find myself yearning for warm sun and the smell of newly turned earth. I am tired of what seems like never-ending rain and cool temperatures.

But there are signs spring is coming. The forsythia in my yard has buds and my daffodils have broken through the soil. And as the earth gets ready to burst forth into new life, I find myself humming over and over the third verse of one of my favorite hymns, Immortal Invisible (423 in the Hymnal):

To all life thou givest, to both great and small.
In all life thou livest, the true life of all.
We blossom and flourish like leaves on the tree,
then wither and perish, but nought changeth thee.

The Easter season we continue to celebrate reminds us that the cycle of birth, death and resurrection is one that is ordained by God, the Creator. We live that story in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus during the "Great Fifty Days of Easter" (did you know Easter last for 50 days?). In this hemisphere, we are blessed that Easter always falls in the Spring and we can see the visible signs of new life coming forth from what looks like death all around us.

I hope you and your family find some time together to dig in the dirt, to watch the new life poking up from the earth and bursting forth on the tree branches and to celebrate the miracle that is resurrection in the creation this spring. This is a wonderful way to not only celebrate God's goodness, but to help children understand that all created life is born, flourishes, lies dormant and is then resurrected in God's time. As we tune our spirits into the divine rhythyms in the creation, we are again reminded that death holds no fear for us because we know that God through Jesus is at work in it and we, too, we share in the new life blossoming all around us.

Faithfully,
Elizabeth