With the weather beginning to warm and flowers showing up at just about every store, spring is on my mind. This week I bought a bunch of seeds to start indoors, and took a few moments in an afternoon to plant them with my kids. They were fascinated that I had intentionally brought dirt inside the house, and thrilled that I was inviting them to be a part of this messy endeavor.
Their joy turned to a subtle disappointment when told we would not eat the fruit of our labor until late summer. Late summer is an eternity away from March when you're a kid.
I got to thinking about how much planting seeds has to teach us about the long game of life. Life doesn't happen at time lapse speed, thankfully, it happens one frame at a time. Sometimes it doesn't feel like like much is happening, or like anything is changing. Frankly it feels like all our labor is in vain all too often, as we fail to apply the patience that the long game requires.
My mind certainly goes to my mom. Over the last 30+ years of my life, how many days have passed where she couldn't see the fruit of her labor, but continued to labor anyway. I think of my wife's mom (my "mother-in-love"). How many frames were captured of her serving her family in love, with no knowledge of what the end of that season would bring. The same could be said of my wife who continues to labor in her work, in and out of the home. She does this for the joy of serving those she loves, and those she has been called to love like Christ.
That kind of life is a picture of faithfulness, and a reflection to me of the faithful love of God, who tends to me in and out of season. I'm grateful for the women in my life who put that love on display.