I took a road trip to northern Illinois this weekend. Driving on East 94 through Wisconsin the words of the prophet Isaiah kept running through my mind…I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"  Really, those words actually ran through my mind several times as I looked out the car window at the landscape along the freeway. Those words written long ago reflect the writer’s experience of exile and the hope for the restoration of the people of Israel. But for me, gazing out the window the words also spoke to the visible rebirth of Creation around us.

The land stood, gray, brown, sometimes tinged gold, the outlines of corn and soybean fields looked like a well worn patchwork quilt. They seemed poised, just on the edge of bringing forth something new. The birch trees,now even more brilliantly white against greening grass, reached toward the heavens with red-tipped branches ripe with the leaves longing to be green. Wild turkeys roamed the fields pecking at whatever food they could find. And young deer could be seen moving slowly then becoming statues at the change in a traffic pattern, hoping to ensure their safety by their stillness.

Overhead, flocks of geese and other birds flew north possibly peering down on the few patches of snow left in places where the sun had not penetrated. Looking out my window at 70 miles per hour, I saw a mother cow licking the body of a newly born calf. Newness…..springing forth everywhere.

Of course, newness springs forth around us all the time but it is never quite so brilliant as in these early days of a much anticipated spring. During these days I am always so aware of the Sacred…..how small I am in the larger scheme of things….how beautiful and wonderful it is to be alive….the gifts all around us.

I have a favorite greeting card taped to my office door. The artist does odd little drawings of colorful geometric people accompanied by the words: "Everyday she cried at least once because the world is so beautiful and life is so short."

Newness, beauty, promise, hope……do you not perceive it?