There is soil embedded in my fingernails this evening from plunging my hands into the top soil of my garden. There are aches in my legs and weariness in my bones from the digging and raking and tilling and planting of garden bed and flower baskets. My work today has readied my south facing plot and it has brought new beauty to the Sol House deck. The work of Easter is the work of new life, beauty, and planting seeds. Seeds that will merge with the fertile soil of the earth and produce new life.

The earth is ancient and yet she is the field for new life again and again. Our own lives, even in the eldest of years, are only a passing moment compared to the ground we walk upon. And yet, we believe ourselves so spent and exhausted unable to be the field of new life.

We approach the 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday. We will read Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd… he leads me beside still waters, to green pastures… Allow the eternal spirit of the Good Shepherd to lead us to new places and renewed spirit. Do not believe that your life is done. Believe instead in the season of Easter and believe new life emerging from your seasoned soul.