April = Time for Something New

Spring signals change in the air. It is a turning point. Blooms are struggling to the surface, buds fighting to open. Beauty comes from what’s hard. Some seasons are like that…hard, long, cold, but what comes out of that time can be beautiful.

Spring is transformative. Snow turns to rain and plants come alive after the death of winter. We see a literal transformation as the woods come back to life, birds return, and the days grow warmer.

I’ve been pretty reflective lately. I’m not really sure why, but maybe it’s because as I stand on the edge of this spring, it is so different from a year ago. Last winter was a long hard season for me and my family and it didn’t relent much in the spring. And even last summer, there were bright moments of relief, but I still wasn’t seeing the entire picture. The entire transformation hadn’t happened yet; our family still felt as if we were in winter. But now this spring, I see how my son has been transformed. He emerged out of a long, dark period, one that’s really been going on for years. The process was hard for him. It was hard on us all, but what I now see is truly beautiful. It was worth the long, cold seasons to see what has bloomed in his life.

Spring can give us hope - a tangible example that we can get through the hard seasons and come out sweeter. And it’s a great reminder too that these are just seasons and they change. Spring comes every year.