It’s mid-March and we’ve had our first real spring day! Even the mailman commented that you can tell spring is here because Barb is in her garden. I suppose there are worse things to be known for than that.
The land—dormant and under the shroud of snow—suddenly reveals its life with the first of the warm days. I am reminded of Isaiah 35:1-2: “The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.”
I think there’s something of the splendor of God in every emerging sprout, the jiggle of the earthworm, and the singing of the cardinals. I love spring.
Remember my tulips that I forced? They’re in full bloom now. I tucked some forsythia into some the vases to have a beautiful contrast of colors. If you were to roll up a rainbow into a wheel, it’s what designers will call a color wheel. It’s a useful tool for understanding how colors work together. Purple and yellow are highly contrastive; opposites on the color wheel and therefore are your eye’s most natural color complements. Anytime you use opposite colors, they will highlight each other.
Rose cones come off now. With a careful eye to the weather forecast and a string of less frosty days ahead, I remove the rose cones before the buds “break” from within the canes. If roses stay too long under the cones, the buds will break into tender leaf shoots and will be more susceptible to frost. I still have a mound of mulch over the graft union (the place where the lovely variety was grafted onto the root stock). I will be removing that soon too.
I’ve begun carefully raking the late falling willow leaves that blow into my flower beds, pruning away winter damage from some shrubs that don’t mind a haircut in the spring before their leaves emerge, and pulling garden grass which comes out easily when the ground is soft and moist. It’s also easy to distinguish invading grass from look-alikes such as grape hyacinth and scilla foliage because of the way the roots are. I like inspecting my plants while I do yard work so that I can develop a plan for getting ahead of (and preventing) problems and for preparing my yard for planting.
The snow isn’t completely gone from my yard, but my early spring bulbs (which are late this year because of snow cover) are coming up. Snow crocus, snowdrops, winter aconite are among my favorites for cheering the heart. Soon, the chinodoxa and daffodils will be blooming in warmer microclimates in my yard. Not all the daffodils will flower outside though–some will come indoors to bloom.
And of course, pansies. I didn’t want to tell the mailman, but I already have a few that I overwintered in my garage that are on my back deck warming themselves and readying to spring into action.
Today we begin exploring ways to walk on the Way of Holiness. 
When we travel somewhere, we carefully pack our suitcases. We assemble our supplies in a tiny plastic bag so we can make it through airport security. We take action well before our journey to ensure we will get on the plane with our carry-ons. We have our destination in mind. 
Hezekiah associated sin with its consequences (v 7). Contrasted with the Westboro so-called Baptist Church, Hezekiah didn’t command hate speech, picketing, or hurting others to throw sin’s blame on someone else. Rather, everyone sought God, recognizing there is collective and individual responsibility for sin. 
A central theme of Deuteronomy is encouragement to remember and not to forget. While that might seem like the same encouragement coming and going, there is an important distinction which we see in Chapter 8. In Deut 8:2, Israel was to remember that God faithfully led them in the desert for 40 years; their clothes never wore out; neither did their sandals; they had food to eat; and water to drink. Day after day for 40 years God was faithful. Every day for 40 years, God ensured they would have no doubt His hand had delivered them. He was continually delivering them. Forty years… the full lifetime of everyone under the age of 40! God had proven His faithfulness every day of their lives. This was grace in the desert.
The closer we get to God, the more we see ourselves in our sinful state. In Exodus 19 and 20, Israel was told to be prepared to meet their God. They had prior warning (Exodus 19:9). Couldn’t they have been totally prepared? They had two days to wash their clothes—and they did. They set up barricades to keep themselves from touching the mountain in Sinai’s desert. Done. Check!
Moses was one of them. By comparison with an equal, they weren’t quite so afraid…or appalled at how sinful they were. Have you ever had a white shirt that once you wore it, no matter how effective the laundry method, strong the detergent, how much bleach you used, that shirt was never brilliant white again? Hanging amongst many not-so-white-anymore shirts, one shirt doesn’t look so bad, but buy a new one, hang it on a hanger, and all the old shirts dim by comparison.
If the Bible were to have a “Best Of” series of Hall of Fame moments, it might be about the desert and recount times when the nation of Israel had seen God at work in powerful ways! In many respects, today’s passage ( 
Who are you and what are you doing?
As we prepare the way for the Lord during Lent, let’s ask ourselves:
The theme for our series is Prepare the Way—highlighted in today’s Scripture verse:
bush and received God’s call to deliver Israel from Egypt. It was in the desert that Moses climbed Mt. Sinai and received the Law to guide the chosen people. It was in the desert that the unfaithful ones died (those who refused to trust God’s faithfulness to bring them safely into the Promised Land as recorded in Numbers 14:29-30). The desert was a place of purification and testing.