Spring makes obvious how the new and the old live side by side all around us.

The snow has melted, revealing last fall’s leaves, dead grasses and the straw of perennial flower stalks shorn of their seed pods by hungry birds.
The thaw has helped send up eager young crocuses.
These earliest of flowers are the first fresh food for honey bees after a long winter.
They tell me that winter is past.
I can dream again of warm-weather walks in the woods or at a lakeside.

It’s no coincidence that nature takes care of itself.
God designed it that way.
It’s a design built on a cycle of constant change, of dying and of coming to life.
It’s a design built on relationships.

To take a deep breath of muddy soil and greening grass is also to take in a deep breath of moldy leaves.
Each breath is part passing away and part birth.
This is what makes each breath so welcome.

Even better is the reminder that life is stronger than death.
That’s how God wishes it.

Take a deep breath of that sweet, spring air. It smells of God’s promise.

John Terauds, CPE Intern