"Let it be spring! Come, bubbling, surging tide of sap! Come, rush of creation!" These words, penned by English author D.H. Lawrence, do so well echo the yearnings of every Michigander I know. And rightly so!

Spring is the season of newness of life, a resurrection from the white death-sleep of winter. The trees shake off their icy coats and the ground gives up its first tender stems and stalks. All around us is blossoming health. It seems that nature itself has been roused from a great and deep slumber, and how happy we are to greet its waking!

And yet Spring is also the season of hope. This month we've tasted the longer days and the warmer air, but also the promise of renewal and life to come. We now see only the first buds appearing, but we're confident that they will soon burst into leaf and blossom. Blessed are we who, no matter the season, live in a perpetual Spring of hope. The beauty of this season and the joys of this living are but the foretaste of the new heavens and the new earth.

Come, rush of

new

creation!

moves and removes