Beyond Words

Until two weeks ago, the landscape of Chicago appeared a hazy black and white. For all appearances, we were surrounded by the dead and dying, no life visible to the eye.

And now suddenly, life emerges, going from shades of gray to colors so brilliant they are beyond what I can conceive to be real. The trees ARE alive, flowers pushing up out of the very dirt, and bushes bursting into fireworks of color. The branches of every tree raise their arms in worship of their Creator, clapping their hands, swaying not by the wind but in the majesty of God.

This is the work of transformation, not a change in perspective as in seeing dead trees differently, but the visible change of life within.

May God's power and transformation be that obvious in us, beyond words, beyond any explanation except that it is the work of God. The fruit of redemption is restoration. And it shows.

This is the way the world was meant to be. We all recognize it and wait breathlessly for the coming of spring, the passage from death to life itself. Not someday, but now.

Out of the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.
Psalm 50.2