While I sit here, I can hear my three littlest kids out on the porch playing in the 20-something degree April weather. What cruel and unusual punishment old man winter decided to deal us this Spring! I’ve already written off April, deciding that we’re just going to lose a whole month of Spring, brown grass and fresh air. Right about now, we all need that new air in our lungs and those of us with younger kids have been hanging on desperately to turn the calendar page to finally get out of the winter season.
There is something that Spring brings and it’s always with a great hope that we long for it, especially when we are in the thick of Winter. How could the season that brings new life, new color and all sorts of new beginnings to our corner of the earth, not be one of great anticipation?
We dressed in our Easter finery (even baring our toes in new sandals), running to the risen Christ who brought us beautiful hope at his resurrection. The sacrifice and struggle of our Lenten journeys behind us (But still with us in the form of our growth in that season.) as we joined in expectant joy celebrating his revealing himself to Mary and the apostles.
When we are a people of faith and of longing, we cannot help but hope. We long for light in our darkness, answers to our long awaited prayers, signs to ease our troubled minds and hearts and we hold on to these sometimes tiny threads through the gift of hope.
Merriam-Webster’s definition of hope is this:
to cherish a desire with anticipation, to want something to happen or be true;
to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment, to expect with confidence
The Catholic Dictionary defines it this way:
The confident desire of obtaining a future good that is difficult to attain. It is therefore a desire, which implies seeking and pursuing; some future good that is not yet possessed but wanted, unlike fear that shrinks from a future evil. This future good draws out a person’s volition. Hope is confident that what is desired will certainly be attained. It is the opposite of despair. Yet it recognizes that the object wanted is not easily obtained and that it requires effort to overcome whatever obstacles stand in the way.
The Easter season and Spring fit intricately together, fulfilling those desires for both the liturgical and seasonal changes. We look forward to and embrace the new life in both of them, the longer light hours of our day, the brighter places in our prayer life that were brought about by the season of Lenten observances, and the celebration of Church feasts that follow the Resurrection. We continue to desire and seek hope around us, warding off the desolation and despair that even things like more snow in April tend to bring our way.
I look forward to continuing to rejoice in this Easter season and even optimistically look toward the prospect of mud season. If you know me or you have little kids who cannot ignore the smallest mud puddle, then you know that this is really letting go for me. Letting go of the dark and the cold, the confinement and the snow and truly reveling in the release and rebirth that is Easter. Even if it doesn’t look like it outside my window.
Sarah Heidelberger is a wife and homeschooling mom of five who keeps her days steady with her planning and organizing skills. Read more about her on the “Meet Our Bloggers” page.