Thank you for joining us!
Before we begin our devotional, I wanted to share a Comment Highlight from last week:
We engaged with some pretty tough topics last week, especially in our comment sections! On our essay, about loving and serving those we do not count as friends,
commented:For me it’s easy to love the marginalized, but more difficult to love those who oppress, hate, ridicule--yet I am called to love them, too. Last night we went to a gathering that I didn’t really want to attend because there were many there who are judgmental, gossipy, and racist. But what I found was an opportunity to kindly refute malicious comments, an opportunity to engage, and an opportunity to learn more about some of these people and why they have so much negativity in their souls.
Thank you for your honesty, Holly, and to everyone else who commented as well! Holly runs a deeply personal and always insightful newsletter called Release and Gather, which I highly recommend.
If you want a chance to be featured in next week’s Comment Highlight, all you have to do is post a comment on any of this week’s posts or threads. That’s it!
Now, on with this week’s devotional…
little by little the sun remembers to stay a bit longer; lingering nearer so that we can feel her gentle touch. the God of Late Winter holds out His palm catching droplets and snowflakes watching wondering as they melt upon His skin.
This time in winter is always such a tease! On Sunday, a cold, crisp sun came out for a few hours and turned the afternoon golden, and I found myself craving the garden for the first time all winter. I tidied the greenhouse, emptied some old pots of soil into the compost bin, and scattered lettuce seed in one of the greenhouse boxes.
The first seeds planted in 2023. They will take time to germinate, but knowing they are there fills me with hope.
In the old garden boxes, the ones we’re planning to replace soon with an expanded planting area, certain perennials are sending up tentative shoots already. Rhubarb, celery, oregano, and lemon balm are testing the cold, wondering if it’s time.
There is a long way to go until spring, and the danger of snow has not passed. But the subtle shift from the darkness of December to the ever-expanding light of January brings a desire to plan, to strategize the earliest plantings, to prune away the dead branches to make way for green growth. It is already beginning. Life is already stirring, in the cold soil.
Don’t be fooled; there is still time for frost and snow to bend or break the most fragile seedlings. But now is the time to take stock, clear away the old, and make ready for the new.
We pause to take in the thin warmth of the January sun. We ask ourselves: What grows in and around me that still needs protecting and nurturing to make it safely to the nourishing warmth of spring?
Thank you for reading!
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I love this so much. The idea of still not rushing ahead into Spring. What ideas, habits, boundaries, etc are germinating inside of us that need to still germinate? Fruit will come, eventually. But it’s still time to protect them, there is no rush...this time is just as important for growth.
I thought this was really beautiful: “There is a long way to go until spring, and the danger of snow has not passed.”