Rector's Note: Surprised by Spring-3.20.25

Spring snuck in quietly today, but right on schedule and dressed appropriately for the weather. Crocuses, daffodils and snowdrops grace my neighborhood, and trees are beginning to flower. The temperature was to reach the 60s today, and rain was in the forecast – spring rain.

The other evening as my husband and I were walking the dog, I mentioned how short the winter seemed, how warm it suddenly had become. And Jess reminded me that the first day of Spring was just days away. It wasn’t that winter was short, it was that it was over.

The hardy, intrepid flowers of this season always surprise me. During icier Springs when blooms would push through snow, I would worry for them – you’ve come to early, the weather is too harsh for you! But they were made to withstand the season’s moods wings – from frigid mornings to balmy afternoons, from snow to rain to sun. It can take a while for Spring to get its stride. I forget that every single year.

Because Lent is late this year, we get spring flowers among the ashes, the smell of Easter even while the Alleluias lie buried. My vocation is one that relies on faith, that draws breath from it and tries to give it voice. And still in the throes of winter, I forget to have faith in Spring, even though she comes like clockwork. Those first crocuses remind me that I had forgotten, even doubted, the power of buried bulbs, and seeds, and the gradual lengthening of days. I’m like that with God, too, sometimes – forgetting all the times that prayers were answered, that help arrived, that love never abandoned me, brainwashed as I can be by my worry that it won’t arrive this time, in time.  Spring reminds me that God is even more faithful than the seasons.

We are living in chaotic times; that can’t be denied. I’m reaching for every sign of resistance that I can, and Spring is one of them. When we changed the clocks a few weeks ago and my morning again started before sunrise, I was delighted to hear birdsong in the dark. The temperate weather has invited me to breathe deeply and hold the warmth inside. The colors, the scents, the breezes are balm for my frazzled senses.

In truth, powerful, inevitable Spring isn’t actually an act of resistance at all. It’s an act of victory. Because it simply can’t be held back. In that way it resonates strongly with the Gospel of Jesus, with the way Lent propels us forward to Easter, inevitable and undaunted by its painful stories.

But trusting Spring and delighting in her, is an act of resistance for me – a way to reject despair, to accept a lifting of mood, to practice joy and reject denial in the face of our current civic troubles. Making space for Spring is a worthy Lenten practice. I breathe her in, and she strengthens me, a divine gift to take with me on the way of the cross. Above all, Spring fills me with gratitude for true and loving things, and gratitude is my most subversive and powerful Lenten practice right now.

I hope you too find ways to let Spring strengthen you, as we complete our Lenten journey together and make room for a lasting and life-changing Easter.