MONDAY MUSINGS

March 10, 2008

Spring

Today is the day I ventured to declare that winter is over and spring has arrived.  Yesterday I shoveled snow, covering the brave spring flowers that had appeared before the last manifestation of winter.  Today there is the promise of a new season of life and possibilities.

Perhaps it was the beginning of daylight savings time that nudged me into spring.  Or perhaps it was a warmer breeze that seemed filled with newness.  Or perhaps it was a weary soul longing to see green grass and spring flowers and buds swelling into leaves. 

I know that March often has one more surprise after we have stowed away the snow shovel.  I remember many basketball tournament games that were challenged by difficult driving conditions.  Whatever comes now will not last long, and spring has a relentless nature that is not satisfied until green replaces brown.

It is more than a happy coincidence that places the Season of Easter in the spring of the year.  The theology of resurrected life fits nicely with the growing evidences of a world being beckoned into new life.  It is comforting to look at the filigree of a tree’s silhouette and know that what appears so utterly devoid of life is just waiting to become a lush arrangement of leaves.  The same is true of a dried seed that could be eaten or placed in the ground to give birth to a new plant.  We are surrounded by such miracles and we ought never to take for granted such grand occurrences.

So the welcome mat is out for spring, even as our lives are open to God’s new possibilities.  Easter is just two weeks away, but first we must travel through the valley of Holy Week.  See you in church.  Peace.  John Krueger