It's the end of February. Lent! Lent snuck up so quickly I barely had the Christmas decorations away. And, well, that's not so unusual for me anyway. I love Christmas decorations and see no need to scurry around putting them away, even after the Epiphany. After all, the liturgical season of Christmas lasts longer than that. But I did get them away before Ash Wednesday. So that's good.
Now we are in the dead of winter. But here in Michigan the weather has been confusing. Some days feel more like March with its familiar tease of warmer days to come. And some are bitterly cold as is typical in February.
Still, I'm longing for planting weather for the garden.
The moss is still staying green, reminding us of warm weather to come.
The Hens and Chicks in their patio container MIGHT come back in Spring. Here's hoping!
No, this cherry tomato plant is very much dead, although there is a bit of hope that it might reseed itself.
I include it in these photos because even seeing its dead leaves reminds me of such fun times with my three-year-old granddaughter Josie. She just loved picking the cherry tomatoes. "Here, Nana, you hold the basket," she would say as she reached her tiny fingers into places I truly could not reach.
Long after the plant was surely dead I would see her peering intently from the window at the plant, clearly hoping to get one last glimpse of something red.
But the real heroes of the Michigan cold are these winter pansies. I bought them last fall hoping they might last a month or two. They are very hardy plants and can even survive some frosts. You can see they are not blooming but they are clearly not dead either. When it goes below zero they wilt up a bit but they are not dead yet.
They are not a landscaping element on my front walkway, no, but they bring a smile to my face and my heart whenever I pass them. They live. Even in adversity they live. In their case, it is life-threatening adversity, weather cold enough to kill them. And yet they hang on.
Oh, Author of Life, please give me and the people I love this kind of tenacity. May we cling always to your faithfulness and your promises knowing that whatever we face in this life Spring is still coming.
God is good. All the time.
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