"The sun doth arise, and make happy the skies..."

Today I saw them; and though I know the end of the week will be very cold, the joy they gave me, this year as ever, will not be diminished.

Today I saw them peeking out of the dead gray and brown that has been ravaged by a dry winter; hopeful, pressing up to greet the sun.

Today I saw them on the side of the road, the green shoots of new grass.

Today they announced to me that Spring is around the corner.

I love Spring. It speaks of new life and renewal. It speaks of the end of death. It speaks of hope and birth and rebirth. It speaks of Easter and Resurrection Sunday. I love the smells and the vivid colors of Spring.

Spring is a new theme of God's symphony every year; like a new release from a favorite singer, or the film you've waited for all summer.

I remember when Karin, Mary-Grace and I went to the Smokey Mountain National Park. It was early Spring and the mountains were just waking up from their long sleep under white blankets. You could almost see them stretching in the cold mornings. Their coverings fell down around their shoulders and fed the thousand streams that run down through those misty miles. When we left our car and sojourned out onto the many trails that led to the secret places of the park, we were serenaded by the voices of the falling snowmelt. The sun shimmered down from the sky, bounced off of many waters, and pierced our eyes with beauty. Mary-Grace was just wandering in Oz, in love with every sound and picture, and the desire to "touch the water."

We soaked it all in, the magnificent refrain of the renewal of Heaven and Earth.

Spring echoes in my heart, and the desire for it's coming reminds me that one day, we will be renewed forever. When the Son rises again and fills the Earth with His songs, we will enter a life that can barely be imagined. The vivid hues of Spring will fade, then, but the indescribable explosion of the sense that we will live in will make even our most joyous times seem but pale and weak substitutes. So, come Spring. Spring eternal, Eternal Spring. Fill us with life.

Smooooooooothie

I just had an awesome smoothie. I think it was probably not the healthiest one I have ever had but then, I'm in Round Rock, not one of the more fanatically healthy places I tend to visit for smoothies. It was good, though. Kiss of heaven. The finger of God in a plastic cup.

Think that's crazy? No wonder people are so bored and cranky! James (in the bible) says that every good gift comes down from the Father of lights so, my smoothie, received with thanksgiving, is a gift from my Great Gifting God. Sometimes it helps to remember, the absence of God means the absence of good, for He is the source and definition of good. God's presence is announced by pleasure and joy and beauty and awe and fear, things we feel that make us glad to be alive. (I'm speaking of healthy fear!)

Jesus says if your eyes are good your whole body is full of light. What? I think He means that your eyes health is determined by what you are looking for. The Pharisees looked for evil and difficulty and they found it. Then they were filled with darkness, like a thousand Darth Eeyore's filling the land with doom and gloom and judgment. Jesus looked for good, and potential good, and He found it, gold nuggets in a mine of dirt and despair. It means He loved people.

It teaches us to love people, when we look for good. It also teaches us that God is really everywhere, speaking, all the time. So next time you enter into the eeyore thing, the poor me, pity me, "you don't know the power of the dark side" thing, ask yourself: How are my eyes? What am I looking for?

MMMMMMmmmmm. Good smoothie.