Light Momentary Affliction

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

I love this time of year. Spring fills me with great hope and excitement. The light and the bright sprigs of green everywhere, along with flowers fiercely pushing through barely warmed soil, give my heart great joy. And it also made me a wee bit sad. The flowering tree, beautiful and majestic, adorn with the most gracious small flowers can be changed in an instant by a quick rain storm or a big gust of wind. Beauty scattered across the pavement, shattered and blown. I always try to enjoy the momentary gifts and let them go on to the next stage of leaf with a small prayer of hope for the coming days. But wanting to hold on and treasure the remarkable beauty is deep within me and I still twinge as the flowers fly away.

This Easter week, we have been regaled with the resurrection stories and the fleeting moments of intersection between Christ and disciples. These moments are fleeting. It is a brief season and then the eternal vanishes from their view and they move on alone, with the strength drawn from what they have witnessed and what has been promised to them. There is great anxiety in the waiting days after Easter and before Pentecost. And many of us feel this anxiety as the seasons flutter and stretch, moving to a whole new adorned earth. We experience a light momentary affliction, a loss for words and for action. But these pains and afflictions, signal a change in season, God's movement toward a full-embodied faith, a body living complete with spirit.

Today, I want to try to enjoy every minute of this day despite the temporary afflictions we all face. There is always more to do than there is time. But I want to remember that these flowers are only for today, a true gift, and deserve to be savored when present. May we all savor the gifts we have been given by God this day, and know that the temporary afflictions are being met and put aside in God's love.