What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-11

Saturday afternoon, trying to blow away some of the COVID blahs, I took Max for a long walk around the neighborhood. 53-degrees, brilliant sunshine, with a steady breeze, the afternoon was close to perfect.

Spring is trying its best around here, but has yet to really take. Some of the Bradford Pears bloomed early then quickly turned green, there have been plenty of daffodils, and then a hint of azalea intention is making itself known – but nothing convincing.

But the air! The air is so fresh and the sky is so blue and the promise of springtime is right there. Before we know it the pine trees will flood every surface with yellow pollen and then the whole community will burst forth in a symphony of vibrant color.

There is something invitational, purposeful, and redemptive about this time of the year. It works to remind me in no uncertain times that there are bigger, broader, and more compelling cycles to life, deep rhythms in time and creation and living that call to us on a fundamental, almost primal level.

God did not create this world by chance, or set something in motion then “walk away” and leave it to its own fate. No, God holds all that we are in a kind of care that I cannot fully understand. “But I trust in you, Lord;” the psalmist writes, “I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:14-15)….

Sometimes it is easy to feel lost in the overwhelm of life that is constantly, aggressively almost, buffeting people in so many ways: culture wars, parents and family to take care of, COVID, tides and forces in society that keep us on our back foot, wars and politics, mortgages, and inflation, and the day to day struggle to make ends meet…

Yet there is the fact that “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Now this morning (Sunday) has dawned cold and grey with a wintery mix of sleet and rain.

As if to remind me that, while the vicissitudes of circumstance are forever variable, I can always stand in the sure knowledge that the sun shines and the flowers bloom and the springtime comes because, ““The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness….”

In confidence and promise – DEREK