May's Reflection

​It is still April. Outside my window are multiple shades of green and a soft gray sky. Around the corner is May. May is when the colors explode as spring flowers appear everywhere. I am thinking of figurative and actual colors and flowers. 

May holds Mother’s Day and a week later, Pentecost. I associate Mother's Day with family and also my favorite rhododendrons blooming at my old house. The rhododendron flowers are white with purple and pink and lavender, lining the driveway on bushes taller than me. A week later the red of Pentecost explodes along with the red rhododendrons with its own vibrancy. All of creation seems to be proclaiming that the Spirit of God is stirring things up. That stirring up is happening in community.

Part of me is still traumatized by COVID. The trauma for me is that it kept us apart. People were told that being together could end life. We also knew that being apart dulled the color of our lives. We need each other. Now as we are able to be together again, I for one value more than ever what we share. Like the flowers that are blooming, we bring our own color and vitality to the garden. We may be white with purple in the middle, or bright yellow daffodils, or the red of Pentecost, maybe a rose. Or we may be the sturdy brown trunk that holds up the blooms, or the many shades of green leaves. 

It is only a week from the bouquets of Mother’s Day to the flames of Pentecost. There again the dominant theme is that the Spirit is there bringing together the variety of people. Differences become part of the beauty as we are able to listen and understand each other. 

What kept us apart no longer has power. The power is in the love of God holding us together. We may spread the fertilizer a little too thick, or we may not be able to tell just yet what is a weed and what is a future vegetable for the dinner table. For now let us just be together and celebrate the color all around.

May you be blessed this season by the beauty of creation and the beauty of the faces surrounding you. 
-​Pastor Jessie McKenzie