If you live in Tallahassee, you have had a little while of witnessing the destruction caused to vegetation by the 20 degree temperatures that visited around Christmastime. Walking around campus last week, you could see the grounds crews working to take out dead plants. In my own backyard, we’re hoping that the frost-bitten citrus leaves are going to pop back this spring. In so many places, we see the pale yellow-brown of freeze damaged vegetation, but we are also beginning to see little shoots of new growth that come after the freeze in certain places.
In so many ways, this seems to be a metaphor for where we have been as a church, as individuals, even perhaps as a nation. The “freeze” of a serious illness came our way. When things started to warm up, we started to peek out, seeing the pale yellow-brown pallor of things frozen: frozen church communities, frozen friendships, frozen behaviors.
Looking at it honestly, some of those things may have died in the freeze – just like some of our plants weren’t hardy enough to make it through. Other things were damaged, limping a little and trying to sprout new growth to catch the warmth of the light. Still some other things made it through unscathed and strong as ever. Look around in your soul. What is yellow-brown? What is green? What has new life? What might need to be pruned away because it is dead?
In the midst of this time, keep in mind that the sun still shines. The light of Christ dawns upon us after even the most damaging of freezes. His warmth brings us the nutrients we need to start life again. We may need to prune, but pruning may bring us the opportunity for new growth. Let us peek out and see what the Light of the World might do after our freeze.