Most tree leaves were tiny pale green buds, welcome meals, apparently, for hungry birds making a rest stop.
A few days later surviving buds had become small leaves, providing welcome cover for shy birds – much more difficult to spot now that the branches among which they flitted were no longer bare.
Leaves almost mid-sized
on May 1
As spring yields to summer, those delicate pale leaves will become sturdier, larger, greener. No longer on the breakfast menu, they will provide excellent shade and protection from sun and predators.
Can we compare spring’s new birth to man’s new birth? Jesus told the puzzled Pharisee, Nicodemus, that he had to be born again in order to see God’s kingdom. Not physically born, as the first time, but spiritually re-born.
Spiritual re-birth seems to be a gradual giving up of things that don’t work, in order to find a conversation with our Creator that does work. The new birth is learning to choose the unselfish good, to be dedicated to a cause outside ourselves, to hope in good that we cannot see, and to love universally without expecting something in return.
That would be asking a lot if we had to transform quickly like tree buds. We don’t. But, though there is no time-frame, I’ve found that the sooner I make choices that honor spiritual ideas over material things, the happier life is.
Participating in the new birth is another opportunity to enjoy the journey.
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