Spring has sprung...

It is cool and quiet in the almost light morning. More rain is on the way. It is always surprising how quickly the earth hardens from mud to a baked surface. The hay is standing tall in the fields and if it warms up, we will be cutting hay sooner rather than later. Mother’s Day has traditionally been the dividing line for garden planting in the mountains. Gary and Leisa planted corn and beans in our garden space. The beans will climb the corn stalks and with a little luck, the human beings may get some corn before the raccoons get it all. Spraying the horses and cows for flies is now a weekly job, another sure sign the warm weather is here.
Baby rabbits sit by the road, frozen and hoping to become invisible. Bluebird parents fly back and forth, endlessly feeding the brood inside the birdhouses. A black snake slithers down the bank as I mow the walking path. In the old berry patch, a box turtle sits soaking up the sun and raises his head as I pass by. The black bear that shares our farm visited mama last night, spending time beneath her bedroom window and leaving his tracks through her garden. She wants to fire her rifle to scare him off. Animal lover that she is, she would never intentionally hurt an animal. But, she would scare the bejezus out of the bear to protect her cats. We haven’t seen the wild white turkey recently. Turkey hunting season culls the flock and he may have been killed. Gary has a beautiful picture of him with his tail spread.Once again all creation is obeying God’s admonition to go forth and multiply.
The turning point, the still point, the time when time holds still as one season ends and another begins, is sacred ground. For those who have ears to hear bird song and eyes to see invisible baby rabbits, God’s tracks in our world are everywhere. I listen to the soft turkey gobbles in the woods below our house as I walk to the stable in the morning and hear “all is well, all is well”. The rooster crows and crows, pushing the world to get up and get moving, doing the work he was given in creation. The horses’ coats are slick and shiny. They have shed all the extra coats of winter and lightened up for spring and summer. I need to let go of some of my extra coats that have grown this winter and prepare for new life yet to come.
God said in Genesis, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate day from night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years…” So it has been since time began and so it is now. The lights in the firmament of heaven mark the seasons and are a sign of God’s presence in our natural world. The ground we walk on is God’s ground. When we breathe in soft spring air, we breathe in God’s breath. When we sit in silence, we hear God passing by in the rush of wings or the rumble of thunder. Sunlight, moonlight, and starlight mark the passage of time, time with God in a world that renews and recreates itself year after year. Spring has sprung here at Sabbath Rest Farm and spring will spring in me. Thanks be to God for new seasons of rest and renewal. Selah.