God’s Beloved,
Blessings for the month of March, a month of many happenings, especially this year with how the Liturgical Calendar falls. A few things we will observe together are Daylight Savings, The Spring Equinox, Holy Week, and Easter.
With the longer daylight hours, it feels as though the earth is waking from its long winter slumber. A time for us in Wisconsin to wonder, when will the last snowfall be? When will we see those hearty and beautiful spring flowers? The start of spring is a time of anticipation, excitement, and hope.
Which can be wonderful, while at the same time, this can produce anxiety. Wondering if things will turn out how you want them to, while knowing there is always a chance they won’t. And in those times, we are invited to turn to God, both in Scripture and in prayer. As we read in Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
I often wonder what it looks like to turn to God in prayer with thanksgiving. It is one thing to say those words, but it is another thing to embody those words. And springtime is a wonderful display of what this might look like.
Take if you will, the daffodils. Daffodils break through cold hard ground, and in some places, they even break through snow. Their bright yellow buds open into beautiful flowers, reminiscent to the color of the sun.
It’s as if the earth’s own sunrays have been harnessed beneath the ground throughout the long cold winter, entombed in its bulb. It’s as if the earths internal sunshine was waiting in darkness, underground, for the right moment to break through with thanksgiving. Daffodils are a reminder of how God works in mysterious ways, in places beneath the surface, in places we cannot see.
And God continues to work in mysterious ways. In our places of darkness, in ways that surpass our understanding, filling us with peace. Peace that lives in Christ even as we journey to the somberness of Good Friday. Because that day was necessary for what is yet to come.
That day allowed Jesus to break through the most impenetrable barrier of all. Creating new rays, for a new sunrise, in a new creation. I look forward to our journey together.