This evening I watch the snow coming down. It’s a spring snow, wet and heavy, more rain really than anything. The flurry of flakes drifts first one way and then another. Sometimes it stops altogether but then starts again,  drifting  lazily across the window. April snow is adolescent, not quite sure of itself or the wind direction to take.

I should be tired of this cold weather and longish winter, but I am not. It is after all spring in the mountains and weather wise, anything is possible here.  I’ve been here long enough to remember when there was a snowstorm on July 4^th and  short lived summers which lasted about six weeks, max. There were many years when my children brought friends to our summer cabin on the lake and it rained and rained and rained for days on end. Nothing is quite like a rainy week in a small cabin filled with teen age boys wrestling on the only couch.

Like most others who love to garden, I can’t wait to get out into the gardens and for warmer weather. Gardening here is a challenge, for sure, but the rewards are all the sweeter. When the daffodils open up their golden crowns in March, it is truly a gift. Pointing to the lilies of the field Jesus said that “not even Solomon in all his splendor is arrayed like one of these.” He was teaching that the  Father takes care of all His children’s needs, including what we wear. But, I like to think that Jesus, there at the Beginning, was the Word spoken for daffodils and lilies.

When the ground softens into pliable earth not even erratic snow storms can dismay a gardening heart. Spring earth is like clay to me. I know then that the migrating finches will come and that the hummingbirds are already making their incredible treks from South America.

As the April snow falls onto my gardens, winter and spring come together. Cold and ice also bring moisture to slender shoots and to the ground. It is a time when the seasons are not quite so distinct, when weather blends together the vestiges of winter and the rebirthing of the new.

It’s interesting that Easter comes during this time. Last Sunday Pastor bought the Word that for the believer, the Resurrection of Jesus should not be a one day only holiday. Easter is not Memorial Day. Easter is ongoing. Christ Jesus died, He rose from the grave and ascended to God the Father. His Holy Spirit is   given to us every day for a purpose. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, Christians can claim the same dunamis power that rose Him from the dead. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. All that’s needed is to ask.

Too often we tend to live in unpredictable April, neither in one season nor in the next. We’re not ready to make something of the clay given to us because we’re still holding on to some erratic old season or waiting passively for what the spiritual weather brings around.

It’s really a pretty simple math question: Do we want Jesus at Easter as a fraction, for 1/365^th of the year?  Or will we claim the full 100% –  the Resurrection for  365/365 ?

Friede Gabbert