Glory halleluiah, it’s Springtime! My flower beds are showing signs of life, and the clocks have changed. But we’re experiencing more than a time and climate change. We’re undergoing a life change. After a long and challenging year, we are entering a season of hope. Hope that masks can come off and we can gather with friends and family without fear. Hope that the things dividing us in 2020 will be lessons learned, and we can move forward as a Country.
About this time last year, I wrote about the contagious nature of fear and anger. I said they had the potential to spread faster than COVID. I had no idea how accurate a prediction it would turn out to be. It’s been a strange, tragic, ugly year. But spring is in the air. I feel the wind of hope blowing through our land.
There is a passage in Song of Songs from The Passion Translation that sums up what I am praying for us in our next season: “The season has changed, the bondage of your barren winter has ended, and the season of hiding is over and gone. The rains have soaked the earth and left it bright with blossoming flowers. The season for singing and pruning the vines has arrived. Can you not discern this new day of destiny breaking forth around you? The early signs of my purposes and plans are bursting forth. The budding vines of new life are now blooming everywhere. The fragrance of their flowers whispers, ‘There is change in the air.'”
Last year when people got afraid, the fear spread and created an avalanche of problems—anger, hostility, division, and strife. But guess what also has the potential to spread like wildfire? Hope. And hope brings a tidal wave of healing.
The late, great Dr. Robert Schuller said, “Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.” I like that because it pays homage to the power of your thoughts and feelings, good or bad, to impact your destiny. I, for one, am praying our Country will release the hurt of COVID conspiracies, racial unrest, and politics and embraces forgiveness, acceptance, and hope.
I have recently learned healing cannot be rushed. Broken bones and lacerations take time to mend. If you push too quickly, you run the risk of further injury or reopening a wound. That’s where I see us as a Country. In a fledgling state of recovery. We are going to make it, folks. And just like broken bones actually heal stronger than they were before the break, I believe we have the potential to be stronger than ever. If we choose hope and share it with everyone we meet.
Smile, laugh, and love your family and your neighbors. Smiles and laughter are contagious. Love is contagious. Let hope arise, and may the Lord’s face shine upon you and bring abundant blessings to you in this season.
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