Just as many of us put on our gardening gloves and old shoes to go out and muck about in the dirt, weeds and new life burgeoning in our plants, so too we need to muck about in the dormant soil of our winter souls that are aching for re-growth, life made new and perhaps a little weeding of the fears and failures of our past. On the Song of Songs Today s reading from perhaps the most famous love poem in the Bible rejoices rhapsodically over the coming of spring. The woman in the Song reminisces about an earlier visit from her beloved. In the previous verses, the man is leaping like a gazelle across the mountains to reach the window of his love and call out his wonder over the joyous return of spring. The Song promises an end to the darkness of winter.
Light overcomes darkness.
New spring life has won out over winter death. And now is the time for flowers, the singing of the turtle dove and the flavor of ripening figs. And yet, the excitement of springtime lies in the promise, not the harvest. The poet professes the beauty of the season and the possibility of the summer harvest. This is a time of working, planting, clearing, loving and embracing.