As Sure as Spring

I see small specs of green. Green sprouting out from some cold dark days. I glance up a bit to notice that the pink of the forsythia in the front bed has begun

to bud, oh, and even open up for a peek or two. A peek at what? The new season! The season is SPRING! Probably my favorite season, and not because of baseball, though I'm trying to make my way down to the Plains this weekend to see my Tigers play their first series.

I've been in this season before and I've missed it. But you know what? Just as I have been in a new season of my life this past year, I am about to change over to a new one. A positive, beautiful down hill slope of what is to come. The return of my sweet sailor! The return of our beautiful yard! The return of two together as one! What can bloom from that, God only knows. Lots of love and amazement.

I am always amazed at the beauty of flowers and how they can completely die and come back again. Have I completely died and come back? Died to myself and come back as a someone wanting and hoping and praying to live more for others this year? I think so. I hope so. I pray so.

Last weekend I helped out at the youth church retreat. For selfish reasons; I admit at first I volunteered to be there as much as I could to bar the loneliness if only for a few days. One youth spoke words of encouragement, then another and so on. They laughed, cut up, prayed, sang and worshiped. And yes, I joined them. I was spoken to. I was rewarded and I got something out of it. "GO, NOW." Go, now...into the world, not as you are but whose you are and what you are to do, serve. Clearly, I must GO.

It had been awhile since I volunteered with the youth. It had been a season in my life, but it has returned. Deployment is a season in our life. My hubby will return. As sure as spring is around the corner, he will return. I travel through seasons in my life, but I will return...to God and to serving others.

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot" Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

~This photo was taken a few years ago along the Mall in Washington, DC~