Thank You God for the Promise of Spring! For the Crocuses Too.

Crocus: seasonal flowering plant, in the iris family; low growing with large white, yellow, and purple flowers. In colder climes, such as New England, croci are often the first plants to flower in the early spring.                                --gbif.org et al

Sixty-two springs and I still get excited when the signs of a new season appear. When this part of the world begins to turn away from winter and turns toward the fairest season of all, and begins to thaw out.

Spring. And it is springing right now, if not already sprung.

I know this by the appearance of delicate purple crocuses that are now pushing up through the chilly mud, to turn their flowery faces to whatever sun they might find in the sky.  One day in late March I walk by the patch of forlorn dirt by my front door, all mucky and covered with nothing but a few leftover leaves from last fall and maybe some “seen better days” mulch. Then I return home just one day later and there be the crocuses (or croci), often the very first plants to flower in the early spring, some years even courageously pushing up through the snow, as if to dare winter to stick around any longer.

You can feel spring in the air now, see it in the sky and even hear it in the atmosphere. The birds all seem to somehow sing a little louder, as if to reintroduce themselves to us, and when a patch of blue breaks through early April gray storm clouds, it seems all the bluer somehow.  And it is the peepers who act for me (maybe you too) as a sprightly and springly alarm clock, their high pitched chirping sounding like a one note chorus. These tiny frogs can be found and heard in wetlands and ponds. They emerge right about now and that peeping you hear is the mating call of the northern spring peeper. There may be no more evocative spring sound than this glee club amorous amphibians.

There’s always the boys of spring to herald this time of year and around here that would be the Boston Red Sox.  I must confess, given the Sox schizophrenic behavior the past few years, I have very mixed feelings about the Old Towne Team. Since 2018, they’ve won a World Series, but also finished dead last twice. What team shows up this spring? I have no idea. They don’t either. The BoSox are also now the most expensive ticket in Major League Baseball. For a group of four to go to a game at Fenway, it costs $324.37, for tix, parking, beer, and hot dogs, and that was as of last summer.  The good news is that there’s always the Worcester Red Sox, now playing just miles down the road. A $17 seat will get you a great view and baseball in its purer form.  Maybe that’s where I’ll head soon for the first game of the year.

Yes, there are so many ways to mark the transition from the chill to chilling out, from skis to shorts, from fireplace to fireflies. Like that first ride on the bike, thighs burning, lungs pumping, butt hurting and yet—thank you God for a new season. That’s spring.  As is putting up the storm windows and pulling down the screens and hopefully not getting a hernia in the process! And there’s all those other spring firsts too. First BBQ. First cold beer on a warm day. First mowing of the lawn, the sweet and familiar smell of fresh cut grass such an elixir.  First time in shorts—yup, those legs are pasty white! First hot dog at the park.  First t-shirt day.

Even as we emerge from a winter that was as wimpy as they come, still, it is such a gift from God to be transported by the sure movement of the earth and the position of the sun to a new time of year.  A new reality in a way. For me spring is when it seems as if anything is possible in this life, perhaps more so than at any other time of year.  Spring brings me hope. Spring reminds me that each day is filled with new possibilities.

In my faith tradition the holiday and holy day of Easter pushes back against the notion of final endings or dead stops. With the God I know, there is a forever eternal second chance waiting for us all, if only we have the courage to look for it and then to begin again. To allow the spirit of spring to reside in our hearts and souls is to imagine that no matter what our age or what our station in life, there is something young within all of us, that looks to tomorrow and imagines with excitement, “What if?!”

What in your life right now needs a little spring? A jump start? A pushing up through the soil and a bending up towards the light and the heat? What needs renewing in your soul, in your spirit, in your body? A grudge to be let go of.  A hurt to be forgiven or healed.  A love to be found or some love to be offered to one in great need. 

The days ahead offer all of these things and so much more.  Thanks, dear crocus. We missed you. Good to have you back. Good to be in the miracle called spring.  

The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.