Signs of Spring
The arrival of the first robin. Crocuses bursting through the ground. The first daffodil. These are some of the signs of spring that bring relief to winter-weary people.
They are all exciting to see, but the one I love the most is the happy little daffodil. For the past few years I have taken photos of my first daffodil bloom of the year and shared it online. (I can’t deny part of my motivation was to rub it in to my snow-bound friends and family in the north.)
I have a few crocuses (that I do love to see) and a hyacinth or two, but when it comes to spring flowers, give me the daffodil. Over the years I’ve occasionally separated the bulbs and planted them in new locations which this year gave me the pleasure of happy daffodil faces all over my yard.
You may have noticed I didn’t mention tulips. I have no tulips. With apologies to the tulip lovers out there I really don't like them. Give me the daffodils. I called them a happy little flower because seeing them makes ME happy.
I inherited my love of flowers from my Mom. Our yard back home in Pennsylvania was filled with flowers. She had a fenced-in flower bed on one side of the old summer house and an open air bed on the other side. In fact, there wasn’t an out building on our farm that didn’t have flowers growing around it. She used three old tractor tires to make additional beds at strategic parts of the yard. And she saved at least three feet at the end of every row of our vegetable garden to plant cosmos, marigolds and petunias, in spite of my dad’s protest that you can’t eat flowers. Her standard response was, “No, but they look pretty.”
The house was not spared. We had a “porch room,” which was just what it sounds like - at one time it was in fact a porch, then someone decided to close it in to make an extra room. There were huge windows in two of the walls which made the room ideal for flowers. And Mom had tables and shelves and window sills filled with greenery. ‘Round about May the potted plants along with their stands and shelves made a pilgrimage to the front porch where they could enjoy the outdoors. Sometime in September they all returned to their places in the porch room, safe from the cold and snow.
My thumb isn’t quite as green as Mom’s was. Indoor plants aren’t fond of me, so I’ve confined myself to the outdoor kind. Since moving to Georgia I’ve done my best to fill the yard with the colors Mom enjoyed so much. Most of my beds have turned into perennial beds. I like the growth that returns every year with a minimal amount of work on my part. I especially like plants that spread, and all my beds have inherited “babies” from periwinkles, lemon balm, monkey grass and more.
I look forward to watching them all grow. Sadly, however, with the blooming of the daffodils comes an inevitable sense of dread. The once vibrant blooms I loved to watch happily bobbing their heads in the breeze eventually close their eyes and fade away. By that time there are other flowers coming along to take their place, but I still feel a sense of loss as the daffodils end their reign for another year.
The blooming daffodils provide us with a sign of spring, but we can find additional significance in their appearance. The flowers are said to represent rebirth, new beginnings, hope, joy and good luck. I always have the sense of rebirth and new beginnings when I see my first daffodil.
It’s almost a preparation for the upcoming celebration of rebirth – the biggest such celebrationin the Christian year.
Of course I’m speaking of Easter. This year it falls on March 31. This Sunday (the 24th) we celebrate Christ’s triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem, heralded by young and old alike – “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
One week later they were shouting “Crucify Him!”
But then that is why He came. God in the flesh, He who knew no sin, bore our sin on the cross so that we might have eternal life.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8, NIV)
It didn’t end with the grave though. On the Sunday after that fateful Friday the women went to the tomb to anoint His body. They were met by an angel: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!” (Luke 24:5-6, NIV)
Do you know the love of God that came to earth to make a way for us to join Him in heaven? As we enter into Holy Week examine your heart, and as we come to Easter morning instead of chocolate bunnies, collect some daffodils as a sign of the new birth and join a Bible-believing church in celebrating the risen Savior!
There’s a lot of interesting trivia out there about daffodils. For instance, they are also called narcissus and jonquils; there are at least 15 different species; and they are the 10th wedding anniversary flower. Cool. Not so cool – The sap in their stem is poisonous to other plants. And to animals. Did you ever notice the squirrels don’t chow down on your daffodils? We may feel that daffodils have been here forever, but they have an interesting history. It’s thought the Romans brought the daffodil to the British Isles, and since they conquered England in the first century A.D. we can presume daffodils have been there for the last two thousand years. In fact, they are the official flower of Wales. The flowers didn’t make it to America until the early 1700s. And aren’t we glad they did! There’s lots more to know about these sunny flowers. Do a google search and find out more than you ever wanted to know!
