Dear Friends,
Want to know my favorite flower?
I bet you will never guess.
Rose? Tulip? Chrysanthemum?
It is not even the lily.
My favorite flower is the crocus. I bet nobody has ever shown up for a first date with a bouquet of crocuses. I have never seen a bride walk down the aisle clutching a beautiful arrangement of crocuses. It probably doesn’t even make people’s top 10 or even top 25.
But the crocus is my favorite of all the flowers. And here is why:
The crocus is a tough flower. It is a brave flower. It is no rose. It doesn’t wait until June when the hazards of winter are safely behind to stick its neck out into the world. No, the crocus knifes its head right through the frozen ground. It doesn’t care if there is still snow on the ground. No, when crocus is ready to tell the world that the seasons are about to change, that something new is just around the corner, it pops up and just tells you. The crocus wants to be the first tell you that spring is on its way.
The crocus believes in spring, and it has something personal and emphatic to say
about it!
It takes guts to go first and the crocus is one gutsy flower!
To me, Easter faith is a lot like the crocus. It is bold enough to stick its neck out and say, “Hey, God is up to something new around here! God is bringing a new world! It may not look like it, it may not feel like it, but it is coming.”
Easter faith comes when the ground is hard and the winter seems like it might never end. It comes as a surprise, as a much needed reminder that God is not done with us yet. Easter faith knows that wrongs don’t work themselves out, injustices and inequities and hurts don’t just dissolve.
Easter people stick their necks out. They care enough to think through and work through the hard ground. They have something personal and emphatic to say. They know that like the crocus, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, are the first signs of an entirely new way of being in the world.
Happy Easter!
He is risen! He is risen indeed!
