In Defense of Yellow Grass

It dawned on me as I walked out of our back door today that I've been looking forward to this day for quite some time. No, there really isn't anything all that special about March 8th, 2007 (other than the fact that we are doing our taxes today...please pray...hard), but it is a day that I have been asking God for.

This is the day that the snow has finally melted. Sure, there are some stubborn, nasty-looking spots hanging on...but that massive drift out our back door now stands at about an inch. And it doesn't look well...this weekend's predicted balminess will probably prove too much for it, leaving our yard (for the first time since before Christmas) snow free. Oh, how I prayed for this. In a short blog entry I wrote for my UDTS friends (titled "Let It Stop, Let It Stop, Let It Stop"), I referred to my white, fluffy nemesis as "the unholy, unrelenting, back-devouring, soul-sucking snow." Yeah. That sums up my feelings about it on January 10 pretty well. After weekend after weekend of snow...I just wanted to fast forward to Spring.

Well...today as I came to work, I looked around my yard.

And I want the snow back.

The lawns and streets around here look like some post-apocalyptic wasteland. The streets have hundreds of what could best described as "Crater-lets" (I swear I've seen magma come out of one of them) that turn a trip down main street into a 6.0 on the Richter scale. The melted snow has also uncovered many priceless gems long hidden from sight. Signs that were inadvertently destroyed by snowplows have been exposed, along with that omnipresent mixture that can only be classified as "The Filth." In the yards, parking lots, and the sides of the streets...anywhere where there was once a large pile of snow, there is now a pile of mud that bears the "treasures" buried beneath: pieces of asphalt, plastic bottles, exhaust-stained papers, gravel, and other muck. And "The Filth" (especially next to the bare trees and dead grass) gives a brown, lunar feel to the yards and streets. And I thought the snow was bad. And so I stood in my filthy back yard for a moment this morning and realized that the grass was not greener. It was, in fact, yellow.

I have found myself longing for Dubuque lately...missing my friends and the community that Julie and I loved so much there at seminary. But time and time again God reminds me of how I felt my first months of seminary (not to mention my first months at my new job, at Grad School, and at College). On the cusp of each new thing...on the cusp of what I would come to love and call home and an essential part of my life...I wished that could skip it. I wished that I could just fast forward or (better yet) rewind. Now, at times, I find myself wanting to rewind to then.

As I made my way through my incredibly filthy back yard to the garage, I passed the flower bed. There, slightly enough that it is impossible to catch if you don't stop, the tulips are coming up. Green is re-introducing itself to our backyard an inch at a time.

Thank God for slow, steady growth.
Thank God for the sustaining relationships and memories of seasons past.
Most of all, thank God for the signs always around us of Springs to come.