Dead … in the deep, dark midwinter it seems that everything is dead.
Grass does not grow, trees and plants sit in the ground lifeless, even the tiny creepy-crawly and flying creatures have gone into hiding. It is just all dead.
This season can make a soul feel lifeless, purposeless, dead.
As I walked the Wonderdog, on a bright and cool day recently, I noticed white color in amongst the dull greenery in the flowerbeds in front of a building we were approaching. I smiled and paused to drink in the beauty of these winter flowers that I loved in our previous garden.
Hellebores seem to begin to bloom here in the Pacific Northwest about the same time as everything else dies or moves into their winter sleep. They are also known as Christmas or Lenten Rose. A legend is told of a poor traveller to Bethlehem, at the time of the birth of Jesus. This traveller sobbed, for they had no resources to get a gift to give. As their tears fell to the ground, these beautiful flowers grew immediately, providing a gift for the new born King.
Right now most of the plants lie dormant. They are sleeping there … in the waiting. But in the weeks to come they will come alive again, bursting with the life from the dead seeds. When they rise from the ground, bud on the branches, flower on the bush, they will be doing what they were created to do …
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”
Psalm 150:6
The thing is, whether spring or summer, blooming or sleeping, working or waiting … in the working, in the waiting, in the blessing, in the breaking, in the dying, the rising … we are all to praise the Lord.
If you’re still alive and breathing
Praise the Lord
Our Father finds
The child inside
We left for growing old
Awake, awake, awake my soul
itsawonderfilledlife 