Impudent Daffodils

Although I have lived in Virginia for over 40 years, the weather here always throws my native New Englander sensibilities for a loop.  Back in Connecticut, my home state, Spring always came around April, with all of its attendant warm breezes, budding trees and blooming crocuses.  But you just never know what will happen in the Great Dominion.  First of all, Spring starts springing in January.  Around Epiphany, you begin to notice the lengthening days.  Warm spells tease early blooming forsythia only to have a sudden frost nip the just opened buds.  Impudent daffodil sprouts poke their way through the frozen earth.  Pictured above are this year’s daffodils.  I was planning on taking the photo yesterday when their dark green leaves contrasted with the newly fallen snow, but I did not get to it.  Too bad!  Today the temperatures have risen into the 60’s, melting away all vestiges of the last winter’s storm.  At least, I hope it is the last!  But again, you just never know.  February can be just as vacillating as January!

The only thing that is certain is that Spring will come, no matter the fits and starts, unless of course, the Lord comes again in His glory before.  On second thought, that blessed event will herald the ultimate Spring of God’s everlasting vindication of life over death.  Winter will be definitively overcome!  The sooner the better I say!  Meanwhile, we take heart from the daffodils, from the dandelions whose bright faces shine at the least opportunity in the withered grass, from the little birds exploring our windowsills for possible nesting sites.  If our spiritual landscape is still winter barren, we find hope in the warmth of a smile, in a sudden light that shines in a splendid truth never before seen, in a story told of some brave soul’s heroic deed.

I wish I could give some update on our building progress, but alas! We still await our county’s permit to begin construction.  Our building campaign has been very successful, and for that we are most grateful.  Join us in prayer that soon the work may begin!  Like Spring, building projects have their time.  We are ready