Have you noticed? It’s spring. The trees have begun to bud out. My crocus have bloomed and the daffodils are putting on a show. I bought seeds the other day at the home show. The sweet mystery of spring: new life bursting forth from what seemed to be dead. How do flowers, plants and trees grow from tiny seeds?

The season is similar to the sweet mystery of grace.  How does faith grow?  In these days of Lent, I wonder how we (I) can follow Jesus to the cross.  How does that even work: death and then life?

Jesus tells the disciples in John 12, a story that sounds like the story of spring.  From The Message,                John 12:24-25: "Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal.”

Spring, with its buds, bulbs, sprouts and shoots, is telling the story.  Right before our very eyes.  If only we will notice.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature--trees, flowers, grass--grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.
Mother Teresa

Thank you God for not just telling us the story, but showing it to us.  May we allow the mystery of new life, the emptiness of silence and your enduring love to breathe your grace into us.  Amen.

God bless you,
Vikki