It’s spring in NE Ohio.  The days are getting longer.  The sun is shining.  The birds are building nests.  After a long, hard winter there is great relief that comes in the form of spring.  I went out hunting in my garden today and was moving dry, dead leaves to see if I could find green shoots peeking out.  Suddenly, I was reminded of how much God speaks to me through my garden.

Winter brings darkness.  It’s cold and cloudy and dreary and seemingly lifeless.  I think our lives feel like that sometimes.  There are seasons when it’s dark and cold and everything seems dead.  But slowly, the sun begins to shine a bit and the days don’t seem quite as cold.  Miraculously, one day you peer into the deadness and see a bit of green.  You continue to wait, but it doesn’t seem as long because everyday you see more growth.  Then before you know it, you are thriving and producing an abundant harvest!  You look back on those dark days and realize that there wasn’t deadness.  God was doing something under the soil that you could never have imagined.