Streams of Mercy

Today is the first day of Spring! Plants are leafing out and flowering, birds are singing, that tender spring green is all around. Even with two freeze warnings on schedule for this week, it’s Spring, and I give thanks. I’m always grateful to “make it” to another Spring, celebrating this day in the same way many celebrate New Year’s Day. It’s a day of new beginnings, of “ever-fresh and radiant possibility.” L.M. Montgomery writes, “Nothing ever seems impossible in Spring, you know.”

Our church family shared a special Lenten Walk on a neighbor’s farm last Saturday. Symbols of the Lenten/Easter season were in place all around the farm and our great adventure was to walk together and discover them.

Rainbows and butterflies, little lambs, bubbles, jelly bean and pretzel prayers, dogwood blossoms and a special egg holding a little donkey with a cross on his back were among the treasures waiting for us. As the story goes, the little donkey who carried Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday saw Jesus on the cross, and as she turned from that sad scene to walk away, the shadow of the cross fell on her, marking her back, and marking the backs of all donkeys for generations to come. Kings always rode on strong and beautiful stallions, but Jesus came to be a different kind of king. Every Good Friday, a friend and I seek out a field of donkeys and feed them apples and are blessed by the sight of those crosses on their backs.

Most special to me, living in this part of North Carolina, is seeing the cross-shaped new growth on Loblolly Pines each year. This sighting has led to a popular legend that pine trees "know" when it's Easter. If you look at the tops of the pine trees in the weeks before Easter you will see the yellow shoots. As the days get closer to Easter Sunday, the tallest shoot will branch off and form a cross. By the time Easter Sunday comes around, most of the pine trees will have small yellow crosses on all of the tallest shoots.

There’s Dogwood and Redbud and sand dollars and so many other signs of God’s loving presence in all of creation! Blessed are those with eyes to see and hearts to understand God’s special messages of love in the world all around us.

Elizabeth