THOUGHTS FROM PASTOR LIZ DAVIS
March 2024
Blessings to you from our creator God!
I ordered my first plants for spring planting today. Not that it’s been the worst winter, but there is something powerful about the hope a seed catalog brings in the depth of winter. It won’t be long until green returns, buds form, birds sings, and new life is all around us.
Easter coincides with this season, aligning our sacred story of Jesus’ death and resurrection with the rebirth of the landscape. Every year, the spring blooms help us remember Jesus, about whom the angels at the tomb spoke: “why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5). Jesus rose from the dead as a promise of what he will do for us. Even though we die, God will raise us to new life in Jesus.
I buy seeds and plants in the middle of the winter trusting in the warmth of summer. Nothing outside my window promises anything other than ice and snow. But I have within my heart the knowledge that it will not last, and the growing season will come.
We’re invited to live every day like that: trusting that new life and healing will come, even if nothing around us gives any evidence towards that future. When the news brings us the heart-wrenching stories of war, the screams of people experiencing violence abroad and in our own country, when we are confronted with the horrible happenstances of life, sudden tragedies and broken dreams, it can be really hard to trust in anything better.
Jesus promises a better future. In this season, we remember that Jesus came to be among us, fully experiencing the worst of human experience. Because of Jesus’ incarnation, ministry to the outcast, suffering, and death, we can trust that God is with us and with all who suffer. We will also celebrate the surprising joy of Easter morning. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we know the impossible can happen: peace will triumph
over violence, healing and reconciliation will restore all, and life will prove stronger than death.
Hold tight to your seed catalog- your Bible, your participation in worship, your faith community- and may all this remind you that we have reason to hope, even when winter seems it will never end. Trust in Jesus, and plant the seeds of healing, peace, and new life that God will nourish into fullness.
God is with you!
-Pastor Liz
I ordered my first plants for spring planting today. Not that it’s been the worst winter, but there is something powerful about the hope a seed catalog brings in the depth of winter. It won’t be long until green returns, buds form, birds sings, and new life is all around us.
Easter coincides with this season, aligning our sacred story of Jesus’ death and resurrection with the rebirth of the landscape. Every year, the spring blooms help us remember Jesus, about whom the angels at the tomb spoke: “why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5). Jesus rose from the dead as a promise of what he will do for us. Even though we die, God will raise us to new life in Jesus.
I buy seeds and plants in the middle of the winter trusting in the warmth of summer. Nothing outside my window promises anything other than ice and snow. But I have within my heart the knowledge that it will not last, and the growing season will come.
We’re invited to live every day like that: trusting that new life and healing will come, even if nothing around us gives any evidence towards that future. When the news brings us the heart-wrenching stories of war, the screams of people experiencing violence abroad and in our own country, when we are confronted with the horrible happenstances of life, sudden tragedies and broken dreams, it can be really hard to trust in anything better.
Jesus promises a better future. In this season, we remember that Jesus came to be among us, fully experiencing the worst of human experience. Because of Jesus’ incarnation, ministry to the outcast, suffering, and death, we can trust that God is with us and with all who suffer. We will also celebrate the surprising joy of Easter morning. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we know the impossible can happen: peace will triumph
over violence, healing and reconciliation will restore all, and life will prove stronger than death.
Hold tight to your seed catalog- your Bible, your participation in worship, your faith community- and may all this remind you that we have reason to hope, even when winter seems it will never end. Trust in Jesus, and plant the seeds of healing, peace, and new life that God will nourish into fullness.
God is with you!
-Pastor Liz