Born Again

There was a storm in Northern Lower Michigan a couple weeks ago in the area of my family’s cottage.  Can you imagine 2-3 FEET of wet snow accumulating within 2 hours??  It was said you could hear an orchestra of tree branches cracking off in the hills that surround the lake.  While up there checking things out this past weekend, a waitress told the frightening story of her 2-1/2 hour journey from the restaurant to her home…. a mere 6 miles up the road.  Branches and trees were fallen every direction you turned.  Some locals were just having their power restored.  And much to my personal dismay, two of the trees that held some of my most cherished childhood memories were cracked off, uprooted, and lying in the water.  


But then came the unexpected.  What had seemed like winter at it's very worst was replaced with  unseasonable warmth. Humidity.  Sunshine.  Spring.... a month or two early.  Destruction was replaced with growth.  Fields were blushing green.  Trees had buds just aching to unfold.  Daffodils were showing their faces.  Ferns on the forest floor were the most vivid color you could imagine.    


LIFE.


Yes... LIFE.  


New LIFE.  


In the midst of destruction.


It reminded me of a book I really enjoyed by an author I so admire.  The book is "Bittersweet" by Shauna Niequist.  Allow me to share part of the prologue:

bittersweet

"The idea of bittersweet is changing the way I live, 

unraveling and re-weaving the way I understand life. 

Bittersweet is the idea that in all things there is both

something broken and something beautiful, that there is a 

sliver of lightness on even the darkest of nights, a shadow of 

hope in every heartbreak, and that rejoicing is no less rich

when it contains a splinter of sadness.

Bittersweet is the practice of believing that we really

do need both the bitter and the sweet, and that a life of

nothing but sweetness rots both your teeth and your soul.

Bitter is what makes us strong, what forces us to push

through, what helps us earn the lines on our faces and the 

calluses on our hands.  Sweet is nice enough, but bittersweet

is beautiful, nuanced, full of depth and complexity.

Bittersweet is courageous, gutsy, earthy.

Nearly ten years ago, my friend Doug told me that the 

central image of the Christian faith is death and rebirth, that 

the core of it all, over and over again, is death and rebirth.  I'm 

sure I'd heard that before, but when he told me, for whatever

reason, I really thought about if for the first time.  And at

the time, I didn't agree."

I'm thankful Spring came early this year.  I'm not sure what April and May will bring, but for now I'm praising God at every turn... for every flower in bloom... for every drop of sweat on my brow...  every ray of warmth on my skin... every field of lush green I pass.  

I'm praising HIM for new growth after destruction.  

For rebirth after death.  

For LIFE.   

"Behold... I make all things new again".