So much has happened since my last entry! We have welcomed a new member to our family, our first great-grandchild, Adalyn. She is as perfectly sweet as any baby could be and her beauty has no bounds, as seen by the picture just hours after her birth:
Our grandson, Oliver, has a bit more growing to do but will be joining us in just a few more weeks. What fun! Tiny little babies filled with promise. New life, from darkness to light these precious bundles are ushered in, and the world is more joyful because they are here.
Changes are happening around my little piece of earth as well. My witch hazel burst into bloom almost a month ago and its ribbon-like blossoms spill out like yellow confetti, celebrating the closing weeks of winter.
Some of my roses are starting to leaf out, and many of them never did lose all their leaves over the winter. I'm conflicted whether I'm late in pruning them back, or if I should wait a few more weeks. The temperatures are still getting in the low thirties, and in fact it was snowing again today. The wind was spitting large, wet flakes sidewards against my windows, making it look like white suds as they slipped down. What do you think, should I prune now or wait?
The rabbits are going to be my nemesis this year, I can see already. Broken rose branches litter the ground with neat little 45 degree angle cuts that I now know signal the presence of "Wascally Wabbits"! I've been on-line trying to find a humane way to encourage them to go back into the forest and leave my roses alone. The tulips are making their way through the crusty hard earth and if the rabbits start eating them, who knows what I will do to the "wabbits" in my seething and frenzied Elmer Fudd mode!
I love seeing all the assurances that spring is indeed around the corner. The tiny unborn pink blossoms of the cherry trees nearby give secret glimpses of the beautiful splendor that will unfurl in a few weeks. Tulip trees are looking promising as their buds exhale and expand larger each day and my irises are starting to lose their pale anemic winter look and are becoming tinged with green.
How spoiled I feel to never have to worry that Jesus will provide a way for life to continue. Leaves return each spring, flowers bloom, the air warms, babies are born, and we always have an opportunity for a relationship with our creator while on earth. He is waiting for us, pulling for us, waiting for us to call on Him and offering us new life, new hope, new strength, new growth, and a life filled with promise.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17
