Grace and peace to you this wonderful spring day where we are surrounded by God’s loving presence and creation.

Did you ever stop to think about how dull and drab the world would be without flowers, trees, grass, plants, animals, birds, bugs and critters? There would be no color. There would be nothing to look forward to as the seasons change. There would be nothing to feed us. The world would just be a dreary place.

Did you ever stop to think about how dull and drab our lives would be without God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit? We would have nothing to look forward to. We would be lost and afraid all the time. We would have no hope. We would be sad and lonely. Our lives would be dreary.

But thankfully, God did create the beautiful world that surrounds us and he did give us His Son, Jesus Christ. We have the beauty of the spring when things pop up out of nowhere, trees magically grow leaves and animals reproduce and the world comes alive with the sound of God’s loving presence, voice and vision. We celebrate the death and resurrection of His Son who died that we might live. A celebration that fills us with sadness, then joy and excitement and a wonderment of how someone could love us so much that they would give their son to die to on the cross for our sins and then offer us a life everlasting.

In the summer we have the continuing beauty of the flowers and nature, the Fall brings us the blazing colors of the leaves, the winter brings us the beauty of the snow and the purity of it all. Wow! God is so amazing and so awesome and he offers us the gift of life everlasting - what can we offer Him? What can we do to give thanks and praise to the Holy One?

We can give him our hearts! We can give him our love! We can give him all that we are, all that we can be and all that we have. We can share the Good News with all we meet at home and on the street and at work and everywhere we go. We can give him thanks for the wonderful gift of His Son, the world around us, the birds that sing, the brook that flows, the trees that leaf, the grass that grows, the food we eat, the friends we have, the work we have, the peace and the comfort and the strength we get from just being a child of God.

Thanks be to God for the beauty and wonderment of this season and this day! Amen.

Blessings to you,

Kristi Webster

"Certified Candidate for Ministry"

Niles Valley United Methodist Church