Maybe it's because it's starting to feel like spring that I'm spending less time in front of the computer ... or maybe it's just that it's getting closer to Holy Week and time seems to be shorter.

For whatever the reason that this blog has been quiet for several weeks, let me just share what I said at last week's mid-week community Lenten service. As background: our yard (at home) is "daffodil heaven" - we have lots and lots of daffodils that are early bloomers. So our flower beds are filled with dozens upon dozens of daffodils of all kinds that are blooming already.

"I take great pleasure in watching these early spring flowers [daffodils] emerge from under 3 feet of snow with their green shoots and brilliant yellow blossoms. Just when you think winter will last forever, the daffodils appear. That’s part of the joy of planting them, in the anticipation that some day, when I least expect it … but in the last gasp of winter, when I most need them, those daffodils will come along and surprise me.
"Isn’t that what God is in a habit of doing with us? Of taking something that was planted long ago … our hopes, visions, dreams … and finally bringing them into bloom? Or, perhaps, in the midst of our winter season, those same hopes and dreams are planted deep within us, yet we may not see them come into bloom for months or seasons yet to come? Still, inevitably, and faithfully, they will bloom in the hands of the Gardener who plants grace and mercy and hope in our lives and in our world every day. The gifts of a God who always provides abundantly for a world in need."