I started to put my hand in to my shoe and stopped. My fingers had brushed against something stuffed into my shoe and as I looked in I thought it looked like dark grey dryer lint.

I usually keep my old running shoes on the enclosed porch and will slip them on when I need to go into the yard. I had noticed a few days ago one of my shoes was moved off the little shelf I keep them on. I picked it up and moved it back to the shelf under the bench. Next time I walked through the porch, again the shoe had been moved. Our cats access the porch through the pet door so I figured they had been playing with my shoes. Finally, when this continued to happen, I moved my shoes into the kitchen, just inside the back door. Now, a couple days later, I needed to slip them on to go into the wet grass outside.

Something in the back of my mind held me back from plunging my hand into the mouth of my shoe, though. Grey dryer lint? How could that get into my shoe? And what are those two tiny white dots? I lifted the shoe tongue a bit and horror struck! Agh! Aghhhhh! Aghhhh! “Randy!”, I called from the kitchen. I walked to the front of the house where Randy was sitting in his office, the shoe still in my hand. The dark grey dryer lint in my shoe wasn’t dryer lint. It was a dead mole!!!! Aghhhhh!

I have a need to share moments like this with others, therefore the walk from the back of our house to the front, Randy being the only person around, just to show him the discovery I had made. Needless to say I was very glad I hadn’t stuck my hand into my shoe to remove the “lint”! I went outside and dumped the dead creature out of my shoe. Phew. Yes indeed, that thing had been there, in my house(!), decomposing the last few days. It smelled! Oh yuk.

How did that thing get into my shoe? The joy of owning cats. They hunt and bring their (dead) treasures to the back door, usually, so we can join in their triumph. “See what I got? Aren’t you proud of me?”, they seem to be saying. This time the hunter stuffed it into my shoe! Aghhhhh!

Aside from adventures with four-legged nature, we have been enjoying Spring as it creeps quietly into the yard and mountainsides. The forsythia bushes, with golden yellow branch-arms stretched out in every direction, vying for the glory due the sun, ring our yard in floral light. The daffodils, blossoms fully opened, trumpet mutely, with visual voice, “Spring is here! Rejoice!”. These glorious treasures of spring never fail to bring smiles to my heart and face. Life IS!

Life is. Because God IS. And if and when we recognize we are not the masters of all, but are in need of a savior, confessing and repenting of our sins and trusting in Jesus Christ alone for forgiveness of sins, then and only then, we gain Life. His Life. The Life Jesus earned dying on the cross and was signified by His bursting forth in resurrection. That resurrection Life can now be ours by faith in Jesus Christ! It is not a trophy set on a shelf to be gazed at and admired (“see what I have”), but the ability to live a right life, day by day, a life in line with the perspective of God (He’s given us His word to know what that is), the life in communion with Him He meant us to live since the day He created Adam and Eve. This Life is none other than God Himself in us by His Holy Spirit. And this Life won’t end when our bodies die. It is Life that triumphs over the grave and will carry us though all eternity. Life with no end. “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” John 17:3.

Springtime is a great reminder of life, renewed life. A reminder to give thanks. For the life we have in Jesus Christ gives us a reason to keep getting up in the morning, even when we don’t feel like it. This life gives us a reason to keep praising and thanking God for His lovingkindness to us, shown daily, even when we don’t want to praise and thank God because of the hurt, disappointment or pain in our lives which seem to take up all our vision. We know, even in the midst of pain and struggle in this life, that God is good and worthy of our praise. And we learn that especially when we don’t feel like praising and thanking Him is when we must. We then prove the Life in us.

And so we can be like the Spring blossoms which shout God’s praise and wisdom, even in a world that looks dead and hopeless.

Jacque