Parable in the Brown Grass

A few days ago I wrote about the ugly ground under the snow. This morning as my eyes fluttered slowly towards awake I looked out the window and recalled a conversation I had with a friend yesterday. She reminded me that all that snow by melting had watered our lawns and would soon produce lush green grass.

One of the most gripping moments in Scripture to me is the period between the crucifixion and the resurrection. What did Jesus' followers think? Were they scattered or together? Did they cry? Did they try to talk through what happened and figure it out? I can only imagine most of them were devastated. Their lives the past few years had been wasted, they thought, on a false Messiah. Or maybe He had been Messiah, and God had lost. What did they think? How did they deal with these huge questions as well as the painful loss of a teacher and friend?

Going through those thoughts and questions is to me ideal preparation for Easter. We hear the whole world sing about the glorious resurrection, and our hearts leap with returned hope. The despair fades. Joy and faith tumble over one another in response to the undeniable truth.

And every spring, the season of Easter, the seeds in the ground and the brown dormant grass, so gloomy and lacking in evidence of hope, explode into verdant, fresh spring green. Flowers come. New life after the old dies. That's the parable written into the world.

So every time you see the ugly brown grass, think with hope. There will be green. Jesus did rise. As a born-again believer in Jesus you have been crucified with Christ and are a new creature. At the resurrection of the saints you will be given a new body for the old. Take hope!

To God be all glory.