We are still in the season of Resurrection – new birth, new life, a new thread in the cosmic weaving of God’s creation.
As I searched for a hymn which would connect me with the new hope budding inside of me, I came across one in our own Voices United which I have never sung. It is numbered 632 and titled “O Blessed Spring”. Perhaps some of you may have sung it at some time.
O blessed spring, where Word and sign
embrace us into Christ the Vine,
here Christ enjoins each one to be
a branch of this life-giving tree.
Through summer heat of youthful years,
uncertain faith, rebellious tears,
sustained by Christ’s infusing rain,
the boughs will shout for joy again.
When autumn cools and youth is cold,
when limbs their heavy harvest hold,
then through us warm the Christ will move
with gifts of beauty, wisdom, love.
As winter comes, as winters must,
we breathe our last, return to dust;
still held in Christ, our souls take wing
and trust the promise of the spring.
Christ, holy Vine, Christ, living Tree,
be praised for this blest mystery:
that Word and water thus revive
and join us to your Tree of Life.
Within our own hymn book, I continue to discover words which are new and life giving.
Is that not what Resurrection is all about? New discoveries, new opportunities, new challenges, and God’s on-going invitation to reach the potential which God sees in us.
The season of Resurrection opens us to the possibility to “get it right” – to be right with God, right with our neighbor, right with creation and, to be right within ourselves.
Thanks be to God!
Pastor Beryl, DLM