Fresh Starts

After the heavy and frequent rains of these past few days, the sunrise broke upon a world turned green again. The dry, brittle grass was gone, replaced once more with a carpet of lush green. Tree limbs still drip with heavy drops. The creek is running fast and creatures of all shapes and sizes are moving about with renewed vim and vigor. The cooler temperatures have brought many familiar faces back to the early morning streets. It feels like a new beginning. It feels like a fresh start.

Nature is good with fresh starts. The inevitable Spring after the long haul of winter. The clear skies that follow the most violent of storms. Germinating seeds pushing through the freshly plowed soil. The constant coming of the sunrise into an ever-changing, ever-challenging world. Creation lives and adapts and endures across the countless years of time through the gift of new beginnings and fresh starts.

It is easy to forget that we, too, are a part of that creation. In the creation stories of my religion, the human creature is the last creature to be lovingly added to the good world by the Creator. We are connected to God and are one with all of God’s creation. And that means that we also live and adapt and endure across our years through the gift of new beginnings and fresh starts.

The Prophet Isaiah proclaimed, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Fresh starts are God’s gift to us. New beginnings are ours for the embracing. If only we have eyes to see what possibilities are springing forth around us, we might this very day find that path out of the wilderness in which we feel lost, or that river that will reclaim the parched desert that our life has become. May we all have eyes to see what new beginning this day holds for us and for all creation.

Peace.