Spring, New Life, and Not Giving Up

I missed the first day of Spring on Friday. I spent last week with Judy and was on the road, traveling home on Friday. My mind was on other thoughts I suppose.

I've always celebrated the first day of Spring. Perhaps with a cup of tea and lemon cookies, or treating myself to new bulbs, or new seeds, even shopping for a new Easter dress or shoes. But I missed it completely this year.

Spring is my favorite time of the year and Easter is my favorite holiday. I love how my garden comes to life. I love Easter bunnies, the wonder of the Cross, and the awesome power of the resurrection. I like to think about what that day must have been like. What were Mary and the other Mary feeling when they realized the One they loved was living once again. Wow....

I wandered around my garden this weekend, after I got home, desperately searching for renewal and refreshment. My hostas are peeking through the earth, like little green fingers stretching for the sky. My daisies are bunching up, already looking thick and green. Even my rose bushes have new green leaves. My tulip magnolia is decked out in bright purple. New life abounds all around. I like to think about how the earth comes alive with new life at the very season our Savior resurrected and gave us new life. Surely God planned it that way.

I struggle with my love of spring this year, everything coming to life, reborn, renewal; at the same time my sister's life seems to be ending. Judy came home from the hospital this past week, and has started hospice care. She made the decision that enough is enough, no more chemo, no more radiation, it is done. I don't know what all I feel. If I let myself I feel immense sadness at the unfairness of it all. I feel angry at the irony of her life waning away in the spring, when all the earth is coming alive, when Jesus died for our sins and bore our sicknesses. "By his stripes we were healed."

Something in me will not give up. I still feel led to pray for divine healing, for a miracle for Judy. Some say I'm being unrealistic, that I'm in denial. But my God is a healer, Jehovah Ropha. I'm not ready to give up, and count this battle lost. Its never too late for God, is it?

"The prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up" James 5:15