O Glorious Spring, we wait for your arrival

I went outside with the kids this afternoon. It started as a job. We had finished another row of wood and I couldn't reach the top of the next row. My oldest daughter offered her help (in capris and my housecoat) as I climbed up on the chair on my tiptoes to reach for the afternoon's firebox fuel. When the job was completed I look around, for my son had joined us and I couldn't find where the kids had wandered off to. They were off somewhere in the back of the property. I decided to set aside my work and trudged through the still deep yet melting snow to see what they were doing.

A chickadee caught my attention as it fluttered from branch to branch almost in a conversational dance. He cocked his head in a way that seemed to suggest a salutation of some sort. We followed squirrel tracks around and around and around the yard. I looked up to the clear blue sky and let the sun fall on my face, enjoying the quiet sounds of nature. As I turned around and saw my house bathed in warm sunlight, icicles dripping with the remnants of a bitterly cold January, I was struck with awe.

It is a beautiful creation that God has made for us. It is wonderful redemption that God offers us. It so permeates all our lives that we see it each year in the renewal of nature, in the cycles of life. The old melting away, the new bursting forth with vibrant colour and strength.

O Glorious Spring, we wait for your arrival with expectant hearts (and cold feet).