After the Winter...

What a winter!!!  If tulips could talk they might be saying, “Is the coast clear?”

According to the calendar, spring has sprung, but Mother Nature has a mind of her own.  The other day I noticed new leaves on a plant that I thought was dead.  The plant is a mum that not long ago was vibrant with color and life.  Last fall when the flowers died and the leaves started dropping off, I was ready to throw it away.  But a friend, who is also a master gardener. told me to plant it outside and to trust that it would come back.  Throughout the winter, this plant became so dry and frail it made me sad to look at it.  The branches became fragile, brittle and smaller than a pencil.  So imagine the surprise and delight to witness green leaves now growing on this once-forsaken mum!  Despite soil that was hardened, stony and cracked by winter’s bitter chill this little plant found the courage and the space in which to sprout new life.

 Oftentimes life can mirror the harshness of winter, and our spirits often reflect the soil that has become hardened, stony, and cracked.  But deep inside like a tiny seed, God waits.  Like the plant in my yard, God works through our brokenness to sprout new life.  This is the miracle of Easter.  What we thought was dead and gone is now bursting with life.

There is a reason those who celebrate the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist at Easter are now called “Neophytes.”  The term comes from the Greek “neos” meaning new and “phytos” meaning planted.  The Neophytes have found new life in Jesus.  They are newly planted in Christ and newly planted in the community of faith.  May we, along with the Neophytes, rejoice in the new life of Easter born from the seeds of Christ’s death and resurrection.