Spring rain

Spring is a season that I look forward to each year. Yes, because of warmer weather and longer daytimes, but especially because I am a gardener. The gardens that I tend go through their cycle of growth and decline, and after a long winter of dead growth and bare earth, it always leaves me pumped up to see new growth poking up through the ground.

I know that the new growth will benefit the pollinators–those bees, butterflies, and other flying insects that are so important in the continued existence of so much plant life, including much of the food that we eat. I see this work as an investment in the future, as well as a way to immerse myself in the beauty of nature and the wonders of the life cycle. It is one small contribution I can make to caring for our common home, and it gives me great satisfaction.

The prophet Hosea likens the spring rains to the action of God’s presence in our life. How are we to understand this? How are the effects of God’s presence like the spring rains? Just as the rain nourishes the plants and enables them to produce flowers and fruit, so too, God’s loving presence in our life helps us to grow as loving people and to make life-giving choices in all that we do.

One big difference between us and the plants of the earth is that the plants have no choice but to receive the rain that falls from the sky. We, on the other hand, are free to reject God’s offer of love and invitation to love. And, in fact, we do at times turn away from God. It’s called sin, and it has been the role of the prophets to call on us to turn back to the Lord in all areas of our life and to let God’s healing and life-giving presence soak into our heart the way gentle spring rains soak into the earth, awakening long-dormant plants and enabling them to resume fruitful growth.

“The Lord will come to us like the rain, like spring rain that waters the earth.” (cf. Hosea 6:1-6)