Dripping Dry

Whew!  Had to get away from staring at words on a screen and thinking, thinking, thinking and take a stroll around the ‘loop’…up the street, and around through the forest, back out at the ‘green field’ and down the hill home after dropping into a friendly neighbor’s house—home to these bright faces:

Lots of eager shoots and blooms dripping dry after a lot of rain earlier in the afternoon. 

A fern unfurling in a field fairly bursting with growth…

The wild cherry blossoms are none the worse for the weather…

and look as if they were wedding attendants dressed in their fairest spring frocks—

 

Their petals have been scattered like confetti.  Spring is celebration time!

 

This old stump along the way is one season closer to be overtaken by the growth it nourishes…

And not to be forgotten, these bright blue miniatures are blooming in a roadside ditch…
The rains are gone.  Spring is bursting out all over! 

Behold, He makes all things new…

--LS

“The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come and the voice of [ a thousand bull frogs!] is heard in our land.” Song of Solomon 2:12

Still there is beauty…

 

“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” Ps.27:3

 “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin….” (Mt.6:28)  God clothes them, temporary though they are… 

His attention to detail, His love of beauty is…incredible.

Not even a violet blooms in the woods without His awareness…

What a gift such beauty is to the likes of us!

How can I look at the daisy’s happy face and not have my own brightened?

It is remarkable to me that even as the world seems to grow darker and more lost in the ugliness and destruction of evil, yet the seasons continue. 

Spring comes and flowers bloom in all their unique and graceful beauty.  The sun rises and light shines reflecting their brilliance. 

 

And I am reminded that God is good. His ways are perfect.  All beauty comes from Him… How kind He is not to suspend its display to the undeserving.  How ugly the world would be then…

 

From the grandest to the tiniest each bloom is exquisite in design, revealing a Creator who cares about the details and lavishes His grace on all who will stoop to see it…

Sometimes it will take some effort.  I was tugging away at a tangle of crab grass in my now overrun ‘Flower Corner’, hoping to find some evidence of flowers returning, when I found this lone tulip.  I do not know where it came from.  I’ve never intentionally planted tulips here.  And this one is my favorite color:

I’m so glad I spent the energy to see what lay beneath that tangle…Let us have eyes to look more closely to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  He reigns!

  --LS

*Original watercolor inspired by Oliver Dunrea’s Gossie and Gertie, Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

Risen!

Let no one caught in sin remain
Inside the lie of inward shame
We fix our eyes upon the cross
And run to him who showed great love--
And bled for us
Freely you bled, for us

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!

Beneath the weight of all our sin
You bow to none but heavens will
No scheme of hell, no scoffer's crown
No burden great can hold you down
In strength you reign
Forever let your church proclaim

Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave

Oh death! Where is your sting?
Oh hell! Where is your victory?
Oh Church! Come stand in the light!
Our God is not dead, he's alive! he's alive!

Matt Maher: “Christ is Risen”—Listen here!

This song resonates with the power of Easter morning’s joy.  I so enjoyed singing it Easter morning and share it now in case you have missed it.  It is a song for today and every day as we ‘walk in the light as He is in the light’ enjoying fellowship with the Father and with His called out ones because Christ is risen!

Blessings!

--LS 

A tromp out back…

Went for a tromp out back this week, just to see if there were any signs of spring besides MUD!!!

I found the daintiest little emergings of huckleberry green and pinkery….

Instead of a host of daffodils I found these bear delicacies…

Skunk Cabbage in all its odoriferous splendour!

 

 

This old giant has had a hard life. R.I.P.

This lovely ‘stream’ forms the boundary line of our property and is actually a drainage ditch for all the run-off we’ve been having.  It’s nicely glorified by wild ferns and foliage…

And here’s a brave little  blossom about to lift her head and announce “Fresh Salmonberries on the way!”

Meanwhile an adolescent cedar comes to his end in our front yard midst bright trails of confetti, his growth spurt ended before he could reach the power lines and cause untold trouble.  He marks for us our history in this house…

And that is the latest in our ‘neck of the woods’…in this season marked by death and resurrection.

Blessings on your celebrations!

--LS