Gifts of Springtime

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple
in a field somewhere and don't notice it.  
People think pleasing God is all God cares about.  
But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.”
~ Alice Walker, The Color Purple

Beloved:
     
          Years ago I planted a lilac bush too close to a redbud tree and it's never been anything but straggly.  Three redbuds in a row stood next to my driveway, giving shade for us to sit there in the evening.  But they also overshadowed my vegetable garden and I was forever 

digging up their hateful saplings.  I finally had all three trees removed to make a raised bed garden in that space.  Meanwhile, the lilac bush has come into her own and is exploding with these dark violet flowers, thus Shug’s comment from The Color Purple.  You only have to glance at her to see how hard that purple lilac bush is working to be noticed.
          I wonder what I miss simply for being too busy with lesser things, lesser than the ways God is trying to please me as I hurry through a day.  What joy or encouragement might I have received?  What new burst of hope or awareness of the Holy Spirit in our midst?  Even now I feel the pinch of needing to finish writing and move on to other things.  Why?  Why not sit with this thought for as long as this thought might sit with me?  What better thing have I to do than consider what God is doing here and now, in and through this time and place?  Surely I am better for it . . . and better to those around me; kinder and more attentive; more patient and good humored.
          We are a funny bunch, amen?  Wanting deeper faith . . . immediately.  Knowing all the while that deeper faith flows slowly and into the stillest of waters.  Springtime has so many gifts to offer.  Take the time to gather yours.

~ peace & prayers,
pastor annette