Sunday Afternoon Tea

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If I were to title this week's ponderings, it would be Of Stories and Seasons.  As I write, the morning sun is filtered through the lace curtains in the dining area and the rooms which were so dark just a couple weeks ago are now filled with light.  It is always amazing to me how each change of season brings with it the fingerprints of God and that which reminds me there is a Creator as well as creation.

While the temperature remains quite cool, the sunshine gives hope of that which is to arrive soon.  My soul longed for the new light after a long and bitter winter.  There comes a time in February here in the Midwest when one sighs and feels the winter has gone on forever (a Narnia feeling that it is winter and never Christmas).

Like a long trial when each day must be met with increased faith, a tiredness and fatigue has settled in and that which brought smiles (such as new snow on the trees in the forest) now causes one to frown for our hearts long for warmth and sun.

Having been immersed in good literature recently, my thoughts have also been of Story and how each of us lives within His-story.  We can't know where our own paragraph within the chapter within the book is located in the Story.  Many think we are in the last chapter of the Book.  However, just being given the enormous gift of taking part in His-story gives one much to ponder.  He calls us and we find ourselves in a story of high adventure where one must look to the Author to finish well.

Just as each story has a new chapter, the change of season provides a newness in each life.  The cold and chill where I live is met with the sun shining from a higher position in the sky... giving the hope that soon (very soon) the daffodils and tulips and rhubarb and all that makes their way through the frozen ground first will appear.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the cooler days give hope of chilly nights when one gets warm and cozy and the promise of soups and stews and warm bread is refreshing after the heat of summer.  Both changes in season are welcome and ready.

There are many things in the life which cause me to ponder and wonder how anyone who pays attention could possibly doubt there is a God who cares.  One being the awe of holding a newborn baby.  Another... the miracle each spring when overnight the landscape changes from black and white to technicolor... and new life appears. 

Surely that same miracle can happen in each life as a personal winter holds promise of new solutions to old challenges... and springtime is felt in the soul.

The picture in this week's Sunday Afternoon Tea is different than usual.  In praise of spring, I placed my favorite teapots on the buffet cabinet and exchanged the deep red silk flowers for the pale pinks of the season.

The two teacups remind me of the givers of the gifts... Stephanie's gift of a "birthday month" teacup years ago and Sally Clarkson's pretty teacup just last autumn.  God's love shown in family and friends. All now bathed in morning sunlight and renewed hope of new life.

Beauty which reminds me I am created in the image of a Creative and Beauty Loving God... and the gift of Springtime brings with it that which is needed to keep going for I know the goal that lays ahead must be amazing when there is such beauty here in this fallen world.