Signs of Spring

My daffodils are blooming. And that is really saying something since gardening and I are not the best of friends. We're barely even aquaintances. I dig the leaves out from under the shrubbery once a year (this task is sorely in need of doing right now!). I cut my unruly rose bushes back in the fall. And I'll water the new tree we put in two years ago when it gets to dry. Other than that, the plants on their own.

My 90 year old grandmother lives with us and she is the type of person who can just be near a plant and it thrives. She can make anything grow. Me, well, I kill my plants. Her "green gene" missed me completely. The plants that are alive around me are alive in spite of me, not because of me.

I don't remember planting daffodils (it is quite possible that my grandmother did it years ago.) But each spring they are the first thing to blossom. Just a few days before the pear trees burst into their white bloom, the yellow daffodils open up as if they are announcing that spring is on it's way. I love spring. (Well, I love spring when I'm on Claritin...but that's another story.) It comes each year no matter what we do. We don't have to hope it comes, we don't sit around praying for it to come - it just comes, because that's the way God designed it.

We all go through "spiritual seasons" as well. In my regular life, we are going through a very difficult time. It feels like it will never end, that things will never "get better" and that I will be stuck here in this spot forever. It might feel that way ten times a day, but in my heart - I know that's simply not true. This season will end when God wants it to. And not one day before. He is working out some grand plan that I cannot see, working things together, changing me on the inside and teaching me very important things. The delay might because He is still doing something, or it could be because I still have something to learn. Whatever the reason, I hear his precious voice telling me to keep my eyes on Him. To stop looking at the circumstances - and to focus my heart and mind on Him alone.

It's not always easy. But every once in a while, he'll give us a sign that spring is on it's way. Like the daffodils in my garden that burst from the ground, God will often give us little signs to help us "hang in there". Simple gestures that tell us that things will change, that spring will come - when it's the right time.

So if you're stuck in a "winter" time, keep your eyes on him, and be aware of those signs that spring is on the way.