Making All Things New: Spring (this week) in My Garden

I love spring. It is the season of quickening, of reviving, of death to life.

At least in this part of the world, it strikes me as the perfect season to celebrate resurrection.

Here, in one hand, I hold the flower and the fruit it is becoming:

Hidden beneath green leaves are the small green fruits that will swell to rich, ripe redness:

and plants that were only five in number last year have multiplied many times, a slow form of miracle:

A tree that we thought had died came back to life–

apple trees planted two years ago are offering us the beauty that precedes their fruit:

(an apple is a kind of rose, did you know?)

And the beginnings of our summer salads are here, smaller than my pinky nail:

Even our trash is becoming a kind of treasure…

…from eggshells and coffee grounds

…to food for the ground

…which gives food to us.

There is even rest in the shade:

God who makes all things new, who brings forth food from the ground, life from death, beauty from ashes, grant that we may see and help to bring about loveliness amid ugliness, plenty where there is want, rest where there is weariness.

In the name of Christ, who makes all things new, Amen.