Daffodils.

I wonder if the daffodils ever think God is crazy.  Or maybe they wonder if they heard him wrong that springtime is almost here.  I have to admit I hate, like hate hate, despise this time of year.  You know, that time of year when the snow has melted and you can finally see the ground again, only to reveal the dead vegetation underneath.  There is a blanket of drabness draped everywhere you look.  The days seem to drag on and on.  Yes, I do indeed HATE this brief period of time every year, from about the end of January through the first or second week in March.  But then all of sudden EVERYTHING breaks loose and it turns into my favorite time of year.  Everything that I love happens all at once.  Daffodils sprout up, the trees start to bloom, baby ducks hatch (which is perhaps my favorite with their fluffy yellow down covering them and their perfectly formed beaks, and their little curious black eyes looking up at you), it’s like God yanks that blanket back to reveal all of nature’s beauty.  My backyard is one of my favorite places to be in springtime.  I have a tree that turns the perfect shade of purple and a terraced garden filled with daffodils, tulips and irises.  But today as I gazed out the window all I saw was a tree that looked dead, a garden that was covered in brown grass and there was most definitely NOT any springtime flowers.  To be quite honest it looks impossible, utterly hopeless that springtime is near.  But upon closer inspection after I peeled back the dead grass in the garden there were daffodil shoots just barely poking up.  Which means that they have been growing for weeks.  But wait, weeks ago there was still snow on the ground.  Weeks ago everything was frozen in time.  That means that the voice of God stirred the daffodils when EVERYTHING looked hopeless.  WOW.  Thank goodness the bulbs listened and didn’t look around them at their circumstances and say it’s impossible that something new is on the way.  Maybe that is why I have always loved daffodils.  Faith flowers.  They push through the cold darkness based on a promise of better times ahead.  So whatever it is that you are facing today.  Take a deep breath and know that springtime is on the way.  No, God isn’t crazy.  And yes, you heard him right when he spoke to you that promise.  But long long before the first shoot of a daffodil ever feels the warmth of the springtime sunshine there is movement.  The quiet shedding of the old layer that keeps it bound.  The new green pushing its way up through the hardened ground making a way in spite of the lack of physical evidence that springtime is on its way.  So hold tight to the promise that God has made you even when your eyes cannot see anything changing.