Worth the Wait
Spring is coming! The proof is seen in
buds peeking out from seemingly barren limbs, brown landscapes yielding their
somber hues to green, and blossoms suddenly bursting alive with all the colors
of the Master Painter’s palette. The evidence of renewal is showing clearly and
making the case—spring is coming around again.
I find it hard to imagine that only a
short time ago, the same world looked rather dull and lifeless. Yet in the dark
reaches of soil and branch, seeds were preparing for their seasonal debut. In a
world filled with desire for instant gratification, we are usually more
interested in the finished product than in the preparation. This brings back
pleasant memories of my grandmother.
Grandma had an orchard that produced
about every kind of fruit one could imagine. At harvest time, she would call us
each Sunday morning and say, “Come out and get a pie, I have some cooling in
the window.”
It was so easy just to go and pick up
a warm, juicy pie for our dessert. Eventually, as I learned about the process
of making those pies, I gained a whole new perspective about them.
First, Grandma gathered the fruit from
the orchard, peeled and pitted it, if needed, and washed it. Then, in the wee
hours of Sunday morning, she would get up, stoke the kitchen stove with wood,
mix and roll out the dough, pat it into the pie pans, fill them with a mixture
of fruit, sugar, and flour, dot the sweetness with butter, place the top dough
over it all, brush each with milk or more butter, and then put the creations in
the oven to bake.
The precious time she spent in making
the pies was the most wonderful ingredient in the gift. Each apple, peach, or raspberry pie (my favorite) was filled with
love. When I considered the whole process, the pies became even more delicious
in my heart.
And it is the same with spring—the
preparation is part of the gift. Time is the necessary element in every process
of growth; learning to appreciate that makes us savor the end result all the
more. Spring is worth the wait.
. . .for behold, the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing[a] has come ~
Song of Solomon 2:11-12
Excerpt from “Seasons in the Garden” – a look at the parallels in our
seasons of life and those of nature - www.amzn.com/0996838007
