Learning to Thrive

Can you feel it? The dead of Creation is just pulling towards Hope. Can you hear it? The birds have begun to sing, expecting this to be a day when spring will arrive again. The temperature gives into the sun as it rises above freezing, feeling almost warm. The earth is ready. Can you feel it?

I think I'm learning to thrive.
I am exactly where I need to be.
I am experiencing the joy of obedience.
Because I finally have eyes to see. I can finally see Jesus in the coffee shops and letters. In the cold and in the warmth. In music and in late night chats with friends. In joy and in laughter. In the yearning and in the satisfaction. In the snow on my car and the red lights.
I can finally see Jesus in this winter place.
There may still be six more weeks until Spring, but I can finally believe that there is a reason for my Hope. Winter will end. Life will rise again. Hope does not disappoint. (Rom 5:5)
I am learning to thrive.
I cannot put into words the joy that is bubbling inside my heart. Because I know I am where I am for a reason. I know I am sitting here in the coffee shop typing blogs and writing a book and listening to music and reading letters for a reason. I know that I am here in Lancaster, nannying, loving, learning, living the mundane for a reason.  I know that God is for me and is making a way for me. I know Him.
I can hear Him whispering to me, "Holy and Dearly loved." Voicing my identity to me over and over again. I know.
And within that, I am learning to thrive, because it is from Jesus that my identity arises. It is the fact that my life is hidden deep within Jesus that I can thrive in the death of this winter.
I wait expectantly for that first flower to shoot up from the ground underneath the tree in my front yard. That first purple flower that arises every year. I wait in anticipation to bury my toes in the thawed earth and soft green grass. I wait because blessed are those who wait for Him. A smile is on my face as I watch the cars drive by and lights revert from red to green. The joy is here because Jesus is. I can see Him.
The winter is no longer killing me, the winter is making me come alive.