I love spring! It was a long, hard winter, with lots of snow, ice, and very cold temperatures. As we officially welcome spring on Saturday, I’d like to share some Iowa photos that remind me of the new life to which God invites us as we share and model the love of Jesus to a world that hungers for kindness, mercy, justice, and peace.

“Day is dying in the west; heaven is touching earth with rest; wait the worship while the night sets the evening lamps alight through all the sky. Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of thee! Heaven and earth are praising thee, O Lord most high!” (UM Hymnal, #687.

“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small; all things wise and wonderful: the Lord God made them all.” (UM Hymnal, #147)

“Mine is the sunlight! Mine is the morning; blackbird has spoken like the first bird. Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word. (UM Hymnal, #145)

“Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace; streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.” (UM Hymnal, #400)

“When morning gilds the skies my heart awakening cries: May Jesus Christ be praised! Alike at work and prayer, to Jesus I repair: May Jesus Christ be praised! (UM Hymnal, #185)

“This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise, the morning light the lily white, declare their maker’s praise. This is my Father’s world: he shines in all that’s fair; in the rustling grass I hear him pass, he speaks to me everywhere. (UM Hymnal, #144) (cliff swallow nests)

“God, who stretched the spangled heavens, infinite in time and place,
flung the suns in burning radiance through the silent fields of space,
We your children, in your likeness, share inventive powers with you.
Great Creator, still creating, show us what we yet may do.” (UM Hymnal, #150)

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father; there is no shadow of turning with thee;
Thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not; as thou hast been, thou forever wilt be.
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed thy hand hath provided; Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. (UM Hymnal, #140)

Why should I feel discouraged; Why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart feel lonely; And long for heaven and home,

When Jesus is my portion, My constant friend is He.
His eye is on the sparrow, And I know He watches me.
His eye is on the sparrow, And I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy; I sing because I’m free.
His eye is on the sparrow, And I know He watches me.

(The Faith We Sing, #2146)

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Wild Geese (Mary Oliver, American poet, whose work was inspired by her passion for nature)