Spring is Coming

Have you ever wanted something so badly that you could almost taste it? I cannot wait for spring to finally arrive. I'm not crazy about winter, but each year I turn my head and suddenly the trees are green. It seems to happen without me being aware of it at all.

But this year, it's different. This year I'm noticing -- actually I'm noticing that nothing is happening. I've been carrying my camera around for a few months now, taking pictures. So far it's all been winter. Colorless and blah. When we went to Orlando last weekend, one of the things I noticed about Epcot was all the COLOR -- flowers everywhere -- explosions of color.

I know that will happen here, but it just seems like it is taking so long.

Today as I walked in from the parking lot, I noticed actual GREEN in the woods. I think it's some kind of weed, but I don't care. When this is what you are used to, green of any kind is wonderful.

It connected in my mind with yesterday's post about the passage from Isaiah. In that passage, I think, God was telling his people that he was going to take what had been fruitless and make it beautiful and productive. He was telling them to get ready -- that something amazing was about to happen.

We know that spring will come. We know, as much as it is possible for us to know, that the drabness of winter is going to be replaced with the lushness of summer. We don't hope that it will; we KNOW that it will. And we act on that knowledge. We make vacation plans. We talk to the kids about summer trips. We join the pool. Our actions are based in our knowledge that winter will give way to spring which will be transformed into summer. When you think about it, isn't is kind of spectacular that something that looks so dead bursts forth with life?

Hold your breath. Prepare. Something AMAZING is about to happen. If we believed that about God, we might act a little differently. I don't mean that we need to go and hire a 12 piece band at church. I do mean that if we were expecting the amazing, we might be a little more excited. If we expected to be amazed on Easter, it would be like carrying around a camera. We would recognize it! If we were watching for the picture so that we could capture it; we would notice the amazing when God sent it forth.

Spring is coming. Take a closer look at that picture. Click on it, and it will get bigger. Can you see the light outlining the leaves? Amazing.