As with anything in life, there are ebbs and flows to the seasons of life: some alive and vibrant with the scent of freshly budded stems as they peak their heads above the plotted earth, others crass and shriveling as the leaves, that no longer crunch beneath our feet, but wilt back into the background of winter’s looming presence.
In this season, as the nature of what is expected from a North Carolina spring is constantly in flux, we lean into the sun’s piercing warmth, yet resist the summer’s thickening air.
What we know, yet sometimes forget, is that we always arrive. Whether dirtied, with our hands elbow deep in the soil of the garden’s promised abundance, or amidst the splashing laughter of the children at play in the pool, or seated around the patio with the glow of sun-kissed skin and lightening bugs in the night, we always arrive.
Whether arriving means watching the seasons change before our eyes or lifting our heads from the pillow each morning as we put both feet on the floor, we are on a journey in this life from one arrival to the next. Each step unfolds as if it were being born again, meeting us for the day’s journey as the sun promises to greet us as we rise; and as the moon rises to say goodnight as we lie down again, we always arrive.
The beauty in arriving is that, whether it is in the blinking of an eye or in the climbing of a
mountain’s peak, the length of the journey does not determine its worth.
This week, as we consider what it is to arrive, let us also consider the Spirit of Truth, the
Advocate, from whom Jesus promised us companionship and comfort for the journey. No
matter where you are on life’s journey today, may you know the presence of the Spirit in all of your arrivals.
May the Spirit lead the way,
Rev. Jenny Shultz-Thomas