There it was, in the midst of all the dried up remnants of last years’ vibrant, abundantly productive garden… new life.
I wandered out to the pasture garden yesterday after watering plants at the greenhouse. It would be my first up close look since last fall when I planted my garlic crop. I had plans to head back out there to mulch over the freshly planted cloves. Minnesota had other ideas. We made it through the beautiful chaos that is the Community Harvest Festival, hosted at our home, just in time for an early winter to arrive.
The garlic sat without mulch all winter, and I prayed that my lack of care didn’t kill them. Then, about a week ago, my mother-in-law called me, so excited because there were signs of life at the gardens. What she thought looked like garlic had sprouted up from the dark earth. Praise God, it made it through even when I hadn’t given it the love and care it needed to survive.
Low and behold when I arrived yesterday, she was right.
I don’t think there was a single clove that hadn’t sprouted. A beautiful band of bright green growth was shooting up among all the death and debris. And all day, the thing that kept coming to mind was what a beautiful picture it was of Resurrection Sunday, and the grace and mercy of God. Especially this year.
In the midst of all the ways I fall short of the glory of God, he saw it a worthy cause to die and rise again so that I can also rise again to new life in him. Not just eternal life, but a redeeming of all the death, pain, sorrow, grief, and sin that follows me through life. It is the foundation on which Developing Roots has been built. More so, it’s the foundation my life has been built upon. To bring new life out of the darkness. Life out of the cold hard winters that never seem to end. To redeem what seems nonredeemable. To bring hope.
I pray this unconventional Resurrection Sunday brings you a deeper sense of what this day really is about. I pray you discover that a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control is possible in Christ. I hope that you will one day find that he makes all things new. That the sorrows in your life can be used to bring new life. Most of all, I pray you grow deep roots so that you can withstand the hard things in life.
May you have a very blessed Easter.
