As the tulips and daffodils push their way through the cold ground I remember an experience and the surprising way of hope. It was over 35 years ago. It was before I went to seminary. I was working at a church north of Seattle. And one of the things I did was drive the bus for the senior fellowship group trips.

On one early spring day we went to the tulip and daffodil fields around LaConner, Washington. And as I walked with my senior friends I learned about the great hope of gardening. A bulb sown with care in the fall lies dormant through the cold of winter. But then in the warmth and sunlight of spring something new happens; sleep gives way to new life and beauty. The daffodils and tulips break forth from the earth and cover the barren fields with new life and color. Whether it’s one flower, or hundreds of acres of flowers springing up in rows that seem to go on forever, it is an amazing thing. It is a surprising wonder from the everyday work of planting. There was more beauty than I ever thought possible.

And then I began to understand, perhaps, that my senior friends had felt a cold wind of winter themselves. And the beauty of those tulip and daffodil fields reminded them of their own coming spring when “sleep” would give way to the mystery of resurrection and new life.

At its very center, Christian faith is about hope. It’s the hope of forgiveness when someone is paralyzed by guilt (Mark 2:1-12). It’s the hope of new life when bad choices lead to emptiness (John 7:53-8:11). It’s the hope that prodigal children can come home (Luke 15:11-32). It’s the hope that outsiders have a place at the table (Matthew 9:9-13). And it’s the great Easter hope that death is not the end, but there is resurrection and beauty (Luke 24:5-7).

Not all things make sense to us now. There is mystery and truth and beauty beyond our understanding. And so we are given hope. It’s hope to believe a bulb will become a flower. It’s hope to believe the tomb is empty and Jesus is raised. And it’s hope to believe we will share in the coming spring of the new creation. Resurrection is more than the limits of our knowing. It is about the bigger things of God, beauty, and hope.

Watching the Tulips and Daffodils,

Glenn