This afternoon I went for a walk in the late afternoon sunshine. Although it’s the second day of spring, the weather is still frigid in the mornings,  almost  as cold as in winter but by late afternoon spring seems just around the next curve of the road.

There is something about autumn sun light  in this hemisphere. Its slanting at angles toward the earth   burnishes green tree trunks  like bronze or copper and makes me catch my breath in wonder.  I love autumn’s golden glow on hay cut   fields.   Shades of   brown become my favorite color palette.

But in early spring, like right now,  it’s the air  I notice. Crisp as ice in a lemonade  glass spring air is  fresh, clean, and new.  It refreshes my lungs and my heart with the  promise of new life, new hope, new energy and vitality. If fall displays itself  with a last glorious burst of colored light before the long winter comes, then  spring  is windows thrown wide open  to new, green shoots and taking down the winter shutters.

The distant dark mountains ringing the valley, rise up into the sky, crowned with  fresh white snow. The setting sun reflects on the snow and sets the mountain momentarily on fire until the sun  drops beneath the western  horizon.   Sturdy daffodil shoots appear out where the snow’s already disappeared against the warmth of houses.  The canopy of trees holds on to passing clouds.    No painter can capture such  ephemeral  beauty on canvas.  We writers stand in awe, speechless, struggling to find any new  words, a fresh metaphor  for spring beauty.    How  can I possibly describe  what’s  been  described  hundreds of thousands of times before without sounding trite.

 I see  ice covered ponds  beginning to crack and thaw, shifting the weight of  their waters toward the shoreline where pairs  of geese nest in the marshy reeds.  I can’t see the goslings yet. Perhaps they’re already hidden in the cattails.  Hawks fly in circles above the fields  searching for food so I know small animals have survived the winter.

I hear melting snow water rushing down the hillside, carving furrows  into the dirt.  The running water  creates swirling , circling patterns over the rock filled ditches.   Soon the blackbirds will come and fill the trees with their melodies. Their songs sound like waterfalls high up in the pine trees.  Lime green lichen brightens the north side of the pine trees, clinging to crooked branches while along the roadside, moss the color of Ireland and emeralds    grows beneath the snow.  The afternoon is a pleasurable gift. The more I look, the more I see.  Snow drifts on the ground are peppered with gravel.  A friend I’ve not seen for weeks is back in the area.  Crows scold me loudly for disturbing their roosting. And there’s my neighbor’s happy three -legged dog,   dancing  a jig around my feet.

Suddenly my heart fills up with deep gratitude for God who invited me to “come and see that the Lord is good” on this afternoon walk. Everywhere I look, His  glory abounds . Psalm 19 speaks of God’s glory in matchless poetry :

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament shows His handiwork.

Day unto day utters speech,

And night unto night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech nor language

Where their voice is not heard.

Their line has gone out through all the earth,

And their words to the end of the world.”

 Indeed, what I see is His glory  displaying itself   unabashedly  in the  heavens above  and on  this small patch of earth I inhabit.   This mid March  spring display  itself bears  evidence that our God  is a glorious, magnificent Creator.  His character is to create and “say that it is good.”  For all God’s abundance, I am grateful to find His beauty wherever I walk. For all His mercy, I am grateful to live where the spring air is clean, unpolluted  and life giving.  I am grateful that I can take a walk in safety and come home to an unlocked door.  For all  God’s goodness, I am grateful that He was always with me in every situation. One gratitude leads to another gratitude, for family and for friends. For faith and  a loving church  family. For  relationships.  For my friends who drove up from Boise to have lunch with us today.   For her husband’s healing from leukemia and the science which made his difficult treatments possible.

Most of all I thank Jesus  for redeeming me from  my old life and  giving me a life with Him that I neither deserve  nor have to earn.    I am overwhelmed with  God’s loving kindness to me and all my loved ones  through many trials. Heartfelt gratitude   becomes refreshing water  like spring creeks rushing down hillsides.

Gratitude  is a gift unlike any other.  The act of being grateful expands the heart as it opens up to God’s incredible generosity. It reminds one of blessing upon blessing showered by a loving God, even in adversities. God created us to be grateful people and grateful individuals.  For what would kind of persons would we be without it?  I for one would probably walk through the world  without ever look up, focusing on my own footsteps instead of  discovering  surprise after  surprise along the way.  If I   could never acknowledge that  I am  being lavishly blessed, I’ll never know the One who lavishly blesses me.  I’d miss out on an opportunity to go for a late afternoon walk, not by myself as I used to do, but  in Christ’s blessed and blessing company.

Friede Gabbert