It’s a hard day not to feel optimistic about the world. One of those days where there’s enough of a cool breeze in the air to remind you it’s still March, but in the breaks of the breeze the sun beats down strong enough to be almost hot in its focus. The snow is completely gone and the world seems to be waking up from its slumber. You can almost hear the plants groaning as they push through the earth, stretching their tiny green shoots like a cat after a long nap. Out of the long, dark winter comes proof that God is once again doing a new thing with the world in Springtime, that the world is once again being reborn.
I think it is safe to say that this has been a long, dark year for me. The growth that has been required of me this year as I stretch and grow myself to figure out who I will be as a pastor has been hard and painful at times, and it has felt like the winter of this year would never end. Yet in days like today I remember that God is doing a new thing with me too. That through the darkness of Lent comes the bright morning dawn of Easter. That the grave is not the end, but that grace and love and resurrection are in the air. That the tiny blades of grass poking from the earth, the grave-clothes in the tomb, who I am today, is just the beginning of the story. A story that God is continuing to unfold. Thanks be to God, who works though winter, through a tomb, through us, and brings new life into the world.
