APRIL 19
Who would have thought my shrivel’d heart
Could have recovered greenness?
—GEORGE HERBERTSpringtime after the cold and darkness of winter is no more
startling than the return of hope and light to the heart of the
mourner.
When the loss first hit us, it was hard to look ahead at all.
When we did, we saw nothing but bleakness and the con-
tinuing specter of absence. Maybe we were told the worst of
this would pass, and in a sense we knew that to be true, be-
cause we had seen it happen with other people who had
suffered loss. But being told or even observing from a dis-
tance is one thing, and believing is another.
Then, as with the first shoot of a crocus or a daffodil, and
the first green budding of trees, the picture changes! The
climate of our life has altered. Our grief is still there, as there
are vestiges of winter visible in spring, but new hope has
broken through, the bright hours grow longer, and we take
delight in life again. There will still be many days when cold
grips the heart, but we have begun to reenter some seasons
of joy. Who would have thought?
Let me relish the first stirrings of new life in myself—as welcome
as the flowers in spring.