Grace like Spring

How is grace like spring?

• It comes, even when we don't deserve it, or earn it.
• There is nothing that we can do to stop it, or even to make it arrive earlier.
• It arrives sometimes just when we most need it, even startling us with its beauty, when we have been so used to winter.
• It can seem delicate, but it is really very hardy -- it can withstand cold snaps, unexpected rains, and even the late snowfall.
• It can be counted on to arrive.
• It is always a reminder that God is present, and that he hasn't given up on us.
• In the middle of winter, we might not imagine that it could ever show up.
• Its arrival pokes through the bleakest, dreariest scenes, but it brings beauty with it. It might even show us the beauty in winter.

Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place suffice
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Note: The lyrics above are quoted from In the Bleak Midwinter, by Christina G. Rossetti (1872). I brought a hymnal to work today to leave here; how great was it to just pull it out and turn to the song that was on my mind!

Images: Crocuses in our front yard.