Signs of Spring
Even though it's snowing lightly outside, I am relishing in the signs that spring is coming. My daffodils are 6 inches high. No buds yet, but getting close. The crocuses are blooming. The robins are hopping around. Can't wait for my lilacs. But the waiting is good. It reminds me that better is coming, that this life is not all there is.

One of my favorite things all year is waiting for the scent of Easter lillies. When we go to church on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, if I go in the back way to church, I get a whiff of the Easter lillies waiting in the stairwell, ready to adorn the altar. Not yet, but soon, they seem to trumpet.

I love this quote by Luther: "This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not healthy but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise; we are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished, but it is going on; this is not the end, but it is the road; all does not yet gleam with glory, but all is being purified."