New Life Springs Forth

 For a winter lover such as myself, I must say these last few months have been rather disappointing.  I love a good snowstorm, or two or three or four.  But I'm losing hope that it will happen for us in 2012.
 Instead, this is what I've been looking at most of the winter outside of our house.

Just this....lots of brown.  Until yesterday when we got a random 50+ degree day here in Johnson City

And I saw these little guys sticking through the ground.  So I searched for more......

and found all of these!  So exciting!  But they are too early. Clearly there is underground confusion due to the lack of a frozen white winter blanket.

Even better....COLOR! 

Dig under the leaves a little and wow, surprise!!!

Not this.....now that's a snowbank!!.....

When I saw this one, I knew that Spring is on the way.  The earth has laid dry and barren and hibernating all winter....but it's almost over and right around the corner new life will spring up all around us.  Immediately, I thought of Jesus' resurrection.  What a day that must have been!  For 3 days life for those who knew Him was full of death and darkness, but in the morning of the 3rd day...LIFE and LIGHT!  Jesus said in John 10, "I have come that they may have life and live it to the full."  Probably my favorite thing about Easter is celebrating that new life that Jesus rose to give us. 

I hope some things in me have died and  been buried over the cold, dark winter and God will bring forth something new and beautiful and full of light and life. "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"  Is. 43:18,19  That's something to celebrate!

"This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." 2 Tim. 1:9b, 10