Springing to Life

My flowers from Papa have really branched out beautifully since I planted them at the beginning of June. After a long week at the Elkhart County 4-H Fair, I was delighted to be greeted by such a vibrant scene during my first full day at home.

What was a symbol of Snuffy's death, has become a memorial of life as I have watched the flowers flourish there each summer for the last two years. This special spot has become a place of grace, where I reflect frequently on God's goodness and the power He has to bring life out of death and create eternal beginnings out of earthly ends.

Nothing better illustrates this divine irony than the cross upon which Jesus died. What was once the greatest symbol of suffering, has been transformed by the grace and power of God into the greatest emblem of joy and hope that the world has ever known. The same cross where Jesus' head once hung when He bore our sin and shame, is the cross that now lifts up our heads to behold His great salvation.

The last verse of my favorite hymn best illustrates this wondrous truth:

O Cross that liftest up my head,

I dare not ask to hide from Thee;

I lay in dust life's glory dead,

And from the ground

there blossoms red

Life that shall

endless be.