Spring Is Bursting Forth

It is the last day of winter, or so we keep hearing!  Tomorrow is the first day of Spring and hope rises just like our temperatures.  It will be in the 50's by the end of the week.  I look forward to opening our windows and sitting on our front porch again.  Winter has let go of it's grip and Spring is bursting forth.

I have thought back on the winter seasons of our lives.  Certainly the great losses we experienced for so many years while battling Lyme Disease.  A threat on Joel's life, resulting in a risk to our family that lasted over six years.  The death of our son Kevin at age 25 due to congestive heart failure, and the loss of another son to his destructive lifestyle and choices.  And of course the winter season we are stumbling through right now with yet another cancer diagnosis plus more in my body.  Winter seasons.  We all experience them to varying degrees.  Some may be a result of our own choices, but most are unexpected events that come our way in life.  That come with living in a broken world.  Still, these winter seasons are only part of our story.  God works all things together for good.....Joy comes in the morning!

The recent flooding in the midwest is really beyond our comprehension unless we find ourselves in the midst of it.  The governor of Iowa flew over the destruction in SW Iowa and said the farmland looks now like a vast ocean.  Record storm..........record flooding.  You can read story after story about the devastation, but you can also read story after story about the goodness of people.  Those who reached out to help others.  I love that.

When I think about Lent I cannot help but think about how God has rescued us from our own winter with Jesus.  The goodness of God in sacrificing His Son to save us.  I love that.  What kind of love is this?  So difficult to comprehend.   To understand.  And maybe we don't.  Maybe we don't use up our energy trying to understand or analyze the winter seasons of our lives, nor comprehend this unfathomable love given to us.  Maybe we just believe and rest in the knowledge that the goodness of God will prevail.  Winter will end.  Spring will burst forth!  We are seeing signs of it in nature here in our corner of the world.  And if we look hard enough with observing eyes, we will see the signs in our own lives, our own winter seasons.  Spring is bursting forth!