Where is Spring?

The past three months have been long and brutal. Twenty-nine days of winter precipitation and multiple nights with below zero temperatures. The bike trail behind our house this morning remained idle except for the die hard runners and those bravehearts who love their dogs more than most. Each day I wonder, when will it end? How long will this go on?

It will probably be longer than I hope but sooner than I deserve.

Life is that way sometimes. We find ourselves in situations that test our patience in light of built up anticipation. A business trip gets extended two days when you were ready to come home yesterday. You finally fill an open vacancy at work to learn that the employee next door has resigned the same day. The credit card from Christmas gets paid and the car needs new tires the next week. The leukemia comes back and the cycle of chemo continues.

Our expectations get sideswiped at the crossroads of life.

It's hard to wait and endure, especially in the most cold and dreary of circumstances. But we must never lose hope that God is with us and His plan is perfect. David struggled with this internal conflict and recorded his thoughts in a blog ... the 13th Psalm:

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

and every day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.

Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"

and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

for he has been good to me.

The promise of deliverance may be fulfilled in a day or a year or at the end of a lifetime. But I look at the seasons and find encouragement in each day for tomorrow. Today was no exception.

After a chilly morning, the temperature rose above freezing and the snow line receded. Soon the trail will hold a stream of aerobic activity instead of melting ice. Birds will build their nests once again and squirrels will construct their hickory and walnut condos.

Spring will arrive, unannounced but warmly embraced.

And the Royals will be in first place ... at least on opening day!