New Growth

I love springtime!  Overnight the world changes from dull, dry, and dead to colorful, vibrant, and alive.  The trees, which stretched their bare arms heavenward all winter, are blessed with a pale green blush.  The Bradford pear tree in the front yard nods its white, blooming head gently in the spring breezes.  Yesterday, the grass was brittle and brown.  Today it is soft and green.  Even the dandelions look beautiful nestled in their greenery.

How exciting it is to examine new growth in the gardens!  The phlox, low to the ground, carpets the yard with purple.  The huge forsythia bushes glow a vivid yellow beside our gray house.  Everywhere signs of new life abound.  The greenery of snapdragons, daisies, hostas, bee balm, and yarrow all promise future blooms.  The clematis vines, recently just dead sticks, sprout new growth at every intersection; some are already three feet long, loaded with buds.  Dozens of purple cone flower plants already climb several inches high, assuring a future of beautiful flowers for us and nectar for bees and butterflies to enjoy.  In Spring excitement grows as the perennials burst forth with new life and a promise for beautiful, fragrant summertime blooms.

 

Do you feel spiritual new growth and springtime revival?  Deep within our hearts we recognize growth, its green tendrils growing ever closer to God, seeking His face.  The palest green blush of revival is evident as we stretch our arms heavenward.  While we work, pray, and seek God’s guidance, we can almost feel the flower buds forming on the green plants of our spirits.  We eagerly anticipate the new blooms filling our lives with God’s beautiful purpose and the fragrance of His sweet spirit.

 

Oh God, our master gardener, nurture the growth of our souls.

 

John 1:1, 4 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener…. Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”