Spring is coming!!

And again from my kitchen table...on a Saturday morning...my week of learning continues and the lessons of life are showed to me so very clear.   I was "the CHARGE" this morning!   That's right the shepherds were gone being cowboys and so I was left in CHARGE!   Oh yes I reminded Bo and Sweetie when I went out to check on sheep..."I'm the Charge" you two just do as I say!   They both seemed very impressed with this new found status!!

But I was all too well reminded of the coldness of the week we had when I went to make my rounds and there under the heat lamp was one sweet little lamb that had not made it.  The heat lamp was still going so I assume that perhaps this one may have happened on my watch...but this little one had lost its mama already...I sometimes wonder with sheep as some say they die of no apparent reason that maybe they just die from a broken heart?

Even with observing this loss, the beauty of the day still reminds me that Spring is coming!  So I breathe in the beautiful sunshine and head back in to my kitchen table...where I hear the ever familiar sound coming at pretty regular intervals out my kitchen window...something was going on.   I went out and followed the sound--one of the ewes was in the process of having a baby.  I was told by the "phone a shepherd" that she could just stay put and lamb outside because it was nicer outside than in the barn anyway and I am sure my trying to put her in would not be a good thing.   (This can bring about dirtier sheep but the warmth was such a nice thing!)  The weather being such that being outside was even an option was such a change in and of itself from the week we have had.   So I go out and check her out and she is just beginning to work on her "project".



The twins...
a little dirty being outside but sunshine and a good mama took
care of them until the younger shepherd took them in the barn.

I head back in the house and decide to hang out my sheets on the clothes line (Can you say spring...I love sheets that have hung on the line and the beauty is that they may actually dry and not just freeze).    I am out without a coat (and quite comfortable--temperaturely speaking I might add).  As I am hanging my sheets, I see right there from my clothes line, the miracle of life taking place with the noisy "chargee".   (I think of the pain of this part of the whole birthing process and I smile to myself thinking about my daughter matter of factly stating, "This is ridiculous" when giving birth to our precious Isabel.  One of those thanks Eve moments!)   And in this short period of time--the ewe has dropped twins out on the ground who appear to be trying to stand up already.   I head out to get a closer look and take a little bit of the "slime" off of one of these little guys face.  I love it when mama's just have them and take care of them...no questions asked!  (I like this in the people world as well).

While I had seen the sadness of life...I was again reminded that Spring is coming.  New life begins.   Like I said, I had sort of a theme this week as far as what spring makes me think of.   In God Calling by A.J. Russell (the two listeners) it was written:

"Think of My trees stripped of their beauty, pruned, cut, disfigured, bare, but through the dark, seemingly dead, branches flows silently, secretly, the spirit-life-sap, till, lo! with the sun of Spring comes new life, leaves, bud, blossom, fruit, but oh! fruit a thousand times better for the pruning.

Remember that you are in the hands of a Master-Gardener.  He makes no mistakes about His pruning. Rejoice.  Joy is the Spirit's reaching out to say its thanks to Me.  It is the new life--sap of the trees, reaching out to Me to find such beautiful expression later.  So never cease to joy.  Rejoice."

That one really made me stop and think about the pruning!   And how sometimes after these times we do come out "better" for it.  But the theme did not stop there.   In My Utmost for His Highest Oswald Chambers was adding to my lesson:   (Sometimes I feel pretty dang special that God would take the time to have all these different sources teach me...give me words to listen to.)  

"Learn to associate ideas worthy of God with all that happens in Nature--the sunrises and the sunsets, the sun and the stars, the changing seasons, and your imagination will never be at the mercy of your impulses, but will always be at the service of God."

And I am lead to Psalm 92.   And while I come across it this week as though a new treasure, I had also journaled about this chapter before, and the same part stood out to me...



^"13 For they are transplanted to the Lord’s own house.
      They flourish in the courts of our God.
 ¹⁴ Even in old age they will still produce fruit;
      they will remain vital and green.
 ¹⁵ They will declare, “The Lord is just!
      He is my rock!"

Even in old age they will still produce fruit!!  And I think of the whole growing and springtime, and I want to be one who "still produces fruit and remains vital and green" for always.    And so I think of the hard winter behind and how I look forward to spring and so this morning at my kitchen table I write:

Saturday morning at my kitchen table and I know--Spring is coming!   Sure the weather may not be giving complete confidence to the fact--but by faith I know Spring is coming.   We will get through these cold days and in return will be first hints of green and tulips coming up through the snow and before long--all is green again.   Yes, Spring is coming and the sunshine through my kitchen window assures me that all is well.  The warmth goes deep in my soul and there is a peace that I cannot describe.

And I think of another SPRING...as Jars of Clay and Sarah Kelly are singing "I'll Fly Away" while I write.   A song of my Grandmother...my Mother...and Me...and I reflect on a tea party with a certain sweet little Firecracker and her mama yesterday and I think how this circle of life continues.   And maybe this whole theme is making others trying to follow what I am saying go in circles--but it all seems to be one theme to me. 

What first caught my eye in Psalm 92 and though it does not talk about spring and the like, it does remind me to be thankful:

"1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
      to sing praises to the Most High.
 ² It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning,
      your faithfulness in the evening,
 ³ accompanied by the ten-stringed harp
      and the melody of the lyre.

 ⁴ You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me!
      I sing for joy because of what you have done.
 ⁵ O Lord, what great works you do!
      And how deep are your thoughts."

And though this writing might cause one to say boy she is going on a long "bike ride" today,  I close my eyes and give thanks to the Lord, for this day, for you, and for "SPRING"--Life Eternal!   Yes indeed Spring is coming!

lyp