Growth

Confession: This is how I generally feel about winter.

Poorly-planned landscapes. Gray on gray. Gray on gray.

Today I went on a little Expotition to the North Pole (as Pooh) to see if I could find something more inspiring than the above. Anything green, anything growing.

Guess what? The earth has layers.

(Incidentally, this post does not. I just have rather a one track mind, and now I can’t stop thinking about things growing.)

Look what I found.

It’s alive out there!

Every one of these pictures was taken today. Promise. And those are my tulips, just above. Someone should come pull the weeds around them.

I am left wondering. What makes things grow?

You can talk all you want about sunlight, and nutrient-rich soil, and that’s true… but it doesn’t deal with the inner compulsion of things–of seeds and cells and starts. They have to grow. They crave it. Why?

And what makes them grow up?? Slender shoots against the force of gravity… against the crushing earth.

Miracle!

First, that in the dead of winter, with cold wind and a hostile environment, green is peeking out wherever it can.

Second, that all this New is being birthed, but it comes from the womb of the Old. The seeds from the apples Adam ate are still making baby trees for my backyard. The living atoms pulsing within Eve are still fueling the growth of every unborn baby today. We’re working with the same molecules God created in the beginning–He must have infused them with near-infinite potential for growth and reproduction.

This gives me hope in January. Jesus’ work is just incredible.