Spring Forward

It's my favorite time of year. To see the promises of life coming from seeming death. A little back story on my life. I grew up on the western side of Washington state where it is green and lush year round. The evergreen trees are tall and ominous. Always green. Always full and beautiful. Then I moved to the eastern side Washington state where the trees are deciduous. Full and beautiful in the spring and summer and most of fall, but barren and gloomy through winter. They seem dead. Sparse and spindly. Not at all beautiful. Not at all green. Three to four months of drab, gray, lifeless scenery.  Then it happens. You begin to see crocus peek out of the ground followed by the tulip leaves. Little hints. Little promises that there is life after all. Hope that there once again will be green, lush leaves filling the sky. 

Sometimes life is drab, gray, and well, lifeless (not in the "I'm dead call the coroner" kind of way), but in the spiritual kind of way. The dark night of the soul it is sometimes called. Maybe it is just a season where you are just hanging on by a thread to life let alone your faith. I've been there. I hope to not go back anytime soon.

I am encouraged by the prophet Isaiah's words. 

                "Forget the former things;

                      do not dwell on the past.

                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 43:18-19

I don't need to dwell on the past lushness of my life. It will only bring me sorrow at its loss and I may miss the new thing that God is doing in my midst. Focus on the next step. Spring forward. Trust that there will be a path to follow and water to bring new life. The barren, drab, gray scenery of your life may be just on the verge of something new, something green and lush, something worth the journey, worth the waiting. Don't give up yet. Keep looking for the small hints, the little signs that spring is just around the corner.

What are you dwelling on today? What seems barren and lifeless? Where do you see signs of life?