Breathe a Memory

Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers
Plucked in the garden, all the summer through
...and (in) winter it seemed as if they grew.
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)


The flowers of summer for a winter heart.
Grace and beauty sent on ahead in a time of abundance
to fill gray spaces with color and fragrance.
If you have ever gathered an arm load
of snapdragons and sweet peas for love,
and placed them in Jesus lap, they are waiting for you now.
Heady reminders, in a hard time,
of spiritually warm days
and a season that will return.
Sweet peas are in God. Summers are in God. You are in God.
Love enclosed and present.
Open your arms wide.
Breathe a memory:

For, lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone;
the flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds is come...
the fig tree puts forth her green figs,
and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
(Songs 2)

"Come away."


With love for some friends and family who need a second spring today. Me too. Sometimes I think I hate to see fall come because I have not fully shaken off my winter skin even in high summer. But even if my pesky winter heart is cramping my style there is a remedy. All our seasons are in God. He had me at "Come Away." Let's do it. Don't even pack a toothbrush, just climb on the porch swing next to Him. Bury your face in the flowers of summers past, picked for Him in prayer and sent ahead on fine clear days. God is like Grandma...He saves everything...and everyone...Come!...until you thaw and are ready to do some planting again...