Lent 2021: A Story to Live BySample

The meaning in our burials

Spring

All that is good is growing.

Yesterday and so many yesterdays

it seemed dead. But now

the deep God stirs in the earth,

and seed and root remember sky

and brightened make their move

towards it. Life rubs its eyes, spring

no longer a dream to sustain 

through the colding days 

but a reality born from sunlight

and bluebells and the sure refrain

of the chiffchaff. 

All that is good is growing;

the darker season has had its time

and will do so again, a knowledge

to make these thrill bloomings

all the sweeter. The return of the swallows

is only marked because they left,

and will leave. But today in the fields

the lambs are becoming sure of their feet,

and green is dancing once more in the trees,

and in the gardens there is a hope 

showing itself in the eyes of the flowers.

I see that I am not dead,

nor is the hope that I was once born into.

I see the meaning in our burials – 

that despairing we might rise for air

and unexpectedly find it, and explore it

with lungs made new by thankfulness.

Even though the last stands of cold

may cling to us, along with the clenching memory

of winters past (all those dyings of our hearts)

even so, today and so many todays:

all that is good is growing.

Happy Resurrection Day. Thank you for taking this journey with us. May God bless you and keep you always.

Find out more about Tearfund and how you can stand with us  in prayer and action.

Author: Gideon Heugh