There’s an old saying about showers and flowers …

Patient endurance through the showers of cooler days results in tiny curled up buds bearing the fruit of beauty and grace.  Tear drops may yet hang on opening flowers, but the smile of hope becomes the focus of a new life full of colour and contrast.

Towering above all that has come before, is all that is still to be.

Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ will come again!

Will we poke our heads above the ground of grieving what once was to feel the warmth of what will be although a mystery still?  And as servant leaders, will we drop all token words of faith to ground our being in real relationship with Christ surrendered to his will?  What beauty is waiting to be displayed in the budding spiritual maturity at work in us by the Spirit?

Cowering in corners of stagnant growth we miss the repeated blossoming of new beginnings in new seasons, in new expressions of the same good news unfolding each morning as lived through the changing circumstances of our lives.

The power to start each day without the dour effects of difficult days past is a gift of the Spirit calling us to be made whole in him.  The hour to become fully open to joy rises gently in receiving the untold possibilities which lie ahead.

“You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you.  Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 118: 28-29)

We dare not rush the transition or we will cause the bloom to die before it fully lives.   We weep, we rejoice with honesty … and we wait for all to be revealed, all to be healed in his time, open to his face beholding us in love and wooing us to wake to him with layers of loss and laughter all redeemed to smile at his amazing grace.

‘Spirit of God, move in tightened, frightened grips afraid to open to what lies ahead in faith that you are there and have prepared the way.  Help us come to you with empty hands ready to be filled with what you have for us to do and to become in Christ, now and into all eternity.  

May you bring peace into places of unrest.  May you bring rest into places of weariness. May you bring calm into places of storm.  May you bring a balm of soothing well-being into places of hurt and pain.  May you bring vision into places of stale coasting on the coattails of the past.  May you bring lasting gardens of grace into full bloom through your people to bless the world with your love.  Amen.’