Spring

Yesterday I had to drive into downtown Douglasville and back. It was an absolutely beautiful day.

I risked UV damage to the crown of my head and opened the sunroof, all the way. I dropped the windows. You could just smell spring in the air.

As I topped a hill, I approached a stand of amazing flowering cherry trees that flanked the road on its right. They looked like pale pink clouds, hovering close to the earth. It was an incredible site, almost transcendent, just for a fleeting moment.

At any other time of the year, I'd have blown by these trees without a second thought. Maybe even just a couple of days ago. In the summer, they're green and nondescript. In winter, they're just bare branches, fading into a massive sea of the same.

But yesterday...wow. A gaudy, garish, showy, unashamed, unabashed display of bloom-osity exploded on the roadside.

When did it happen?

Was there a moment when the tree switch flipped from "off" to "bloom?"

The real truth is that trees don't bloom in a single moment. They bloom bit by bit, day by day, until the undeniable truth of their presence can no longer be denied, even by the most heedless of us humans.

And that reminds me of something that Jesus once had to say:

Mark 4:26-29 (The Message)
Then Jesus said, "God's kingdom is like seed thrown on a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows—he has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain. When the grain is fully formed, he reaps—harvest time!

Imagine: Jesus is saying that the kingdom can be compared to a harvest that comes while we're not paying attention! Perhaps he's saying that it is a gift. It's not the work of our human hands. The Kingdom belongs to God, who chooses to share it with us, and its presence is a mystery that we cannot solve.

Pastors, churches, and faithful Jesus-followers spend a lot of time, sweat and energy worrying about "the kingdom." That's not bad, is it?

Shouldn't we work to "make disciples?" Shouldn't we give our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness to the effort of kingdom-building?

Of course.

But we should also remember that God's grace, like the flowers of springtime, is a gift from Him that we don't make for ourselves.

We are the beneficiaries of God's abundant love and goodness. It all depends on God, and surely not on us.

What a relief. And what a beautiful day this is.

Grace, Peace, and See you Sunday ---
Adam