Here in South Texas, we had what felt like was an early spring. Bluebonnets started sprouting. Early seedlings popped out. Hints of verbena and lantana began to show themselves.
Last night, though, San Antonio bundled up for a late-season cold snap. The temperature gauge says “28 degrees,” with plans to stay down in that vicinity for a couple days. All the purple blooms are gracing the ground now, and spring is pushed back a few more weeks. Our little vegetable garden is huddled under blankets and sheets, in hopes of sheltering the sprouts and beginnings of plants.
This morning is a perfect reminder that life must be embraced while it is here. The blooms stunning the passerby yesterday are on the ground now, a blanket of past tense. The uncovered sprouts are shriveled, in a new state of beauty.
The preacher declared, “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do…Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…” (Ecclesiastes 9:7, 10). There’s a new kind of beauty outside our windows this morning—frosty and shimmery and sprinkled with sparkles. The blooms from yesterday are gone—today is all about snuggles and staying warm and the crisp blue sky of a cold snap. The sunrise brought winter’s last hurrah. We might even make some muffins.
Would you join me in appreciating the beauty of yesterday and relishing the different beauty of today, without bemoaning the transition? Let’s engage purposefully in the present tense, friends.
