It is early March, and I am sitting on my deck enjoying this unusually warm and sunny weather. Warm weather after a long winter always brings a sense of optimism and hope for what is coming. The snow is mostly gone, and the birds are singing all around me.
More than ever, this spring is needed! It was one year ago that we were in Ukraine. It was our last trip. We were both sick with what now seems like Covid symptoms, but we did not know what we were sick with. We were in a country with friends we love, but far away from our home and family. The borders were beginning to be closed and we had to make last minute plans to get home before the flights were cancelled and the borders were closed.
The past year has been quite a year! We have seen an international shut down due to Covid. We have seen violent protests, normal lives changed, and the loss of connection with friends. People have moved to work from home, schools have been on-line and having dinner with friends has been non-existent. We have been unable to return to Ukraine and our ministry work has had to be done in different ways. I have experienced the death of my sister from Covid and my brother-in-law due to an heart attack. I have had friends get sick with Covid and just recently, I have tested positive for it as well. Lives have forever been changed!
But…. spring brings us new hope! After a year of this pandemic, it is time to return to some sense of normal! Vaccines are being given and cases of Covid are going down. Restaurants are open and people are beginning to gather together again. There are signs of a return to some sense of community again! Just as the warm weather and sunshine bring promise that winter is over and green grass and flowers are soon to return, there is promise that we will soon be able to return to some sense of normal again!
God did not create us to be alone. He did not design us to wear masks and to hide our smiles and faces from those around us. He designed us for touch and community. I love these verses from the Bible that offer hope:
“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. The wild animals in the fields will thank me, the jackals and owls, too, for giving them water in the desert. Yes, I will make rivers in the dry wasteland so my chosen people can be refreshed.”
Isaiah 43:19-20 NLT
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11 NLT
“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”
2 Corinthians 4:17 NLT
As you read this blog, my hope and prayer for you is that you will see the hope of the future! This season we have gone through is coming to an end and there are exciting times coming! With God in your life, there is hope for today and hope for tomorrow because God is ultimately in control.