Choir Notes

Spring Always Comes
From Music and the Spoken Word
Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4049

Spring always comes. No matter how dark and cold the winter, the light and life of spring bring newness of hope. If a tree, so stark and bare, can give birth to beautiful pink blossoms; if grass, so yellow and brittle, can transform into lush, green lawn; if a bulb so forgotten and buried can shoot through the dirt, find life-giving sunlight, and give rise to a bright red tulip, then we can hope.

One year an eight-year-old boy discovered the miracle of it all. He was helping his mom plant flower bulbs, something he’d done many times before, but somehow he had never really stopped to think about it. This year, he fingered the bulbs that were to be planted in disbelief. They were so unsightly and unpromising, they might as well have been rocks. How could it be possible? Would these lifeless lumps really turn into brilliant flowers?

And then, of course, in time, they did. After a long winter, spring came, as it always does, and the bulbs they had buried came back to life as beautiful daffodils and tulips. Not just once, but every year they came back, sometimes even stronger than before. The boy was awestruck.

Truly, it is miraculous.

From the very beginning, we have learned some of life’s most important lessons in a garden. The life cycle of plants, flowers, and trees teaches us to believe in that which we cannot see. The triumph of spring reminds us of the greatest miracle, the most comforting promise, proclaimed on a spring day outside an empty tomb some two thousand years ago: “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.” (Matthew 28:6).