What a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest! It’s still cool out, but the sun is brightening up the whole world. The primroses are blooming and the leaves are starting to pop out on the raspberry bushes. The calendar says its spring and, although a lot of the country wouldn’t agree, today really holds the promise of longer days and warmer weather.
Spring is my favorite season. I love how everything seems to come to life as it settles in. It reminds me of the part in the Wizard of Oz where everything goes from black and white to full color. Our whole world is coming alive with newness and brilliance.
I noticed today, that our rhubarb plant is growing like crazy. This humble plant is a good illustration of what God can do, not just for plants, but in our lives, as well. We got the once-pathetic little thing from a friend, who had pulled it out of the ground because she thought it was dead. It teetered on the edge of their fire pit for a long while, dried and shriveled. Whenever they had a fire, the flames licked at it, but never quite consumed it.
When winter came it got rained on, snowed on, and, for a while, it was all but floating in the big puddle that had formed around it. In spite of it all, when they started cleaning up their yard in the spring, they noticed that the forlorn plant, unbelievably, had new sprouts. It had survived all the neglect and trauma and, even though it had once appeared dead, new life was beginning to form. Years later it still produces a bountiful crop of rhubarb every summer.
It doesn’t matter how messed up you’ve become. It doesn’t matter how dry and dead you feel. It doesn’t matter how bad it got. Just like he did with the rhubarb, God is more than able to restore your life and make all things new and full of hope, once again.
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-20
Where have YOU seen God’s new growth springing up? In your life? In your garden? Somewhere else? We’d love it if you’d share your “God-sighting” in the comment section below!
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