This time I postponed my blog for a day because I went skiing yesterday. My neighbor spontaneously invited me along and it was wonderful! She knows where to find good slopes, even when the sun is warm. Sometimes you just have to take the chance! You just have to get up early enough and go up the mountain very early! There is plenty of snow, the slopes are perfectly groomed, and yet you can hear the birds singing and the sun is shining and you know it is spring. Down the valley at home in the yard, the forsythia and the hyacinths are in bloom, the lilac is green, and some buds are coming out of the ground, where I'm not sure what they will be. Finally, the in-between season is coming to an end, where it is neither winter nor spring and everything is brown.
I'm looking forward to the new year as a family and as a church, where there are also some promising buds. Bulbs and buds are a symbol of hope. A promise that bloom is coming. It may get cold again. Opening the buds is not without risk. But it's their destiny. They should not remain hidden in fear.
This reminds me of an old song by Teerstegen (I translated the original German verse to English, noticing that the English Version of the song is totally different. Although it doesn´t rhyme anymore):
Like the delicate flowers unfold themselves willingly and hold still to the sun.
Let me so, with peace and joy, catch your rays and let you do your work.
A week ago we sang this song at a conference in Germany. Christians from different congregations and churches. For several voices. It was so beautiful that one priest took out his mobile phone to record it. He was the only one wearing a priest's habit, but he was part of the group. A group that wanted to learn more about how to build healthy churches. My bottom line, what encouraged me most, is that it doesn't depend on the size of the church or the strength of us leaders. What is most important, is that our hearts are close to God.
To be a man or woman after God's own heart. That is the greatest blessing to our fellow human being. When I make time for my relationship with God, my other relationships grow. When I am closely connected to Jesus, His lifeblood flows from the roots through the trunk to my branch. And then there is fruit. I can't do anything without him. This keeps us humble, even when we are successful. And hopeful when we aren´t.
The security and love I experience in my relationship with Jesus frees me to engage with others. I want to understand others and offer them a safe place. Sometimes it works, but not always. But I'm not so easily discouraged anymore! I do more right than wrong, and that's good! I don't take myself so seriously that I can't make mistakes. Even though I could do without them. Who wouldn't want to be in control all the time? Children and birds, that´s from whom we can leran. Without worry and full of trust. For God is good and perfect.
Every year there is a new spring. New life where before everything looked hopelessly dead. Miracles on our doorstep. And the tender sprouts of hope in our hearts - who knows what will grow from them?
Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you.
In the same way that a branch can´t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine,
you can´t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
John 15:4