April has come and gone with its multitude of celebrations, whether Easter or family birthdays all clustered together.
Both of my boys, now 46 and 47, were born in April in a small TX county hospital.
What I remember about coming home to the parsonage in Morgan, TX was the bluebonnet carpeted rolling hills. For me, bluebonnets are a vivid reminder of birth, rebirth, and perseverance.
Not so much this year.
It’s like the usually flowering pastures of April are mimicking the dismal demeanor of today’s world with only a few feeble patches of longed-for-beauty amongst the parched landscape.
Even in my own garden, the purple larkspurs that I count on every year to be compact, lush, and gloriously blooming show stoppers barely flowered. Part of their job in the spring garden is to block out and discourage the unsightly weeds competing for attention.
Others in my local FB gardening group have shared the same anomaly in their gardens. I learned that bluebonnets and larkspur are related in their growth and seasonal habits. Who knew?!?!
I can’t help but compare the lack of seasonal beauty in our neck of the woods with the lack of beauty we’re displaying in our own lives when we allow drought and weeds to choke our lovely souls.
I pray that today’s bullying, elbowing, get-out-of-my-way, bellicose, unapologetic insolence can be rooted out and its seeds are kept from sprouting by the thick and verdant beauty of God’s persistent love.
What weeds are you allowing to take over in your heart?
A Spring Awakening
Spring is God’s way
of speaking to men
And saying, “Through me
you will live again,”
For death is a season
that man must pass through
And just like the flowers,
God awakens him, too.