Looking forward to Spring Flowers!

This is certainly a different year. I think my desire for Spring to emerge has been earlier and more pronounced this year for many reasons. Just to see healthy growth of plants would be a joy right now.

I have had window flower boxes for over three decades in three different homes. My first window boxes were a surprise anniversary gift. We went on our family camping trip for two weeks and as we arrived home - there they were to surprise me - beautiful new window boxes made and attached while we were gone! 

Each of our home's window boxes were lovely and I enjoyed filling them up every year.  We had many very hot midwest summers in a row for a while and so I began to just grow different colors of petunias each year because they can tolerate the heat well.

This great longing as I wait for Spring has had me in such anticipation that I have been contemplating something new and different - anything but petunias!  I am getting excited even though I must still wait.

Ecclesiastes 3
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—

A time to give birth and a time to die;

A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

A time to kill and a time to heal;

A time to tear down and a time to build up.

A time to weep and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn and a time to dance.

A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;

A time to be silent and a time to speak.

A time to love and a time to hate;

A time for war and a time for peace.

What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor—it is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him. That which is has been already and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what has passed by.


Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. 

I said to myself, “God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man,” for a time for every matter and for every deed is there. 

I said to myself concerning the sons of men, “God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts.” 

For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust. Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth? I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot. For who will bring him to see what will occur after him?

Isaiah 40:27-31
Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?

Do you not know? 

Have you not heard?

The Everlasting God, 
the Lord, 
the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired.

His understanding is inscrutable.

He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power.

Though youths grow weary and tired, 
and vigorous young men stumble badly,
yet those who wait for the Lord 
will gain new strength;

They will mount up with wings like eagles,

They will run and not get tired,


They will walk and not become weary.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
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Mary Engelbreit window drawing