Spring Fever

So it's February - and Spring is in the air! In Houston, I suppose this is perfectly acceptable. Growing up in Ohio the first signs of spring were like a relief that winter would not actually last forever as I was often convinced it would.

For the past 4 years I've been utterly convinced there is no such thing as Spring in Houston, but this year is different. This year everywhere I turn I see trees and bushes in bloom - I am literally seeing this season for the first time in my city. I am sure it has been there all along, but this version of me has not.

This year, God is very clearly drawing these parallels for me between my own rebuilding/reawakening and the awakening of nature in springtime. It's like He's walking me around creation with fresh eyes so that I can see my own awakening and blooming with fresh eyes. He is so good to me :-)

There is so much more brewing up in me to share, but I'll save that for later this weekend. In the meantime, I did eek out a poem...it is a rough draft and probably not fit for publication on the Interwebs, but then again who cares? Maybe I'll revise someday - until then - HAPPY READING!

When I laid the tree branches bare

Under the meekness of a Sunbelt winter

There was a message for you there

Daughter my promises of restoration were

Never to be lost on you

At times I wished you could remember this

Just the way I whispered into you

Before you were formed in your mother’s womb

I foreknew you

Understood you

Watched you as you built up a house of cards

Watched it shake

With each blow of rejection, of objection

To the identity I had called you to

It was only a matter of time before

I laid your own house bare like the trees

Tore down the self-misconceptions like leaves

But there is always spring.

Remember how you loved to watch

Buds push forth their first blooms

Under the watchful patient eye of Midwest sun

Remember how you longed to

Chase down the first days

Of sun, and green, and bloom

How you swore up to my ears

There was no spring here under the scorch

Of Texas sun

But there was

There is

And this spring I will show you every

Bud, blossom, and bloom

If only to remind you

You are being renewed.

I love you

Won’t you let me show you your Spring?