For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

This is the start of our 9th April here in North Carolina, but I am still just as excited as that first spring in 2014! I guess it’s the way life irrepressibly and joyfully pushes its way through the drab leftovers of winter, at first just a small splash here and there until suddenly – usually a week or two before Easter – it all comes with a rush and we can’t help but let the wonder of it wash over us.

I need to wait a week or so for the full experience, but Friday I found it impossible to stay indoors. So I took a few photographs of the emerging colors as an excuse to share my enthusiasm.

So far it’s just the beginnings of the azalea, a few early dogwood blooms, and the freshness of the new growth on the Japanese maples. But it is enough to set the tone, and that tone is renewal, promise, celebration, and hope. There is a lot of good theology in a garden.

Even this spider, his work highlighted by a recent cloud of pollen, is getting in on the art!

I have written about this before, but it bears repeating that our garden is largely uncultivated. Rebekah certainly works hard in a few select areas, but we are in no way “on top of” much of anything at Maul Hall. Yet, miraculously, God’s initiatives push through, presenting us with glimpses and sometimes floods of beauty.

This is such a metaphor for my spiritual life. In spite of my neglect, my taking so much for granted, my lack of deliberate cultivation, my inclination toward torpor, springtime comes to my soul and with it such evidences of grace, and light, and promise.

God is so creative, so generous with love, and so inviting.

And I am grateful – DEREK