What can we learn from melting snow and ugly grass?

Some winters can be long. This has been one of those winters.

As with all seasons, there is beauty to be found in winter.

However, the cold, ice, snow, and gray days can get long. And the nights can feel longer. Some years, the snow covers the ground for months.

So when the snow starts to melt in March, the promise of spring fills my soul. With great anticipation, I long to see green grass and spring flowers. But each March, what strikes me is how ugly the grass can be after the snow melts. The disappearance of snow reveals some grass but also dirt and matted-down leaves. Near the road rests torn sod from the rash shoveling of sidewalks. Sand and trash strewn from the street add another layer.

I had been imagining what grass looks like later in spring. However, what we find initially is life battered down by a hard winter.

With time and care, I nurture the grass to lush beauty. I rake the sticks, leaves, and dirt clods so the grass has more room to breathe and grow.

As I am working in the yard, I realize that my nurturing of this ugly grass changes the way I view it. Rather than seeing just the remnants of abuse from a hard winter, I notice promise and resilience. I can see the beauty beneath that slowly emerges.

As we go through struggles in our life—grief, suffering, loss—we face similar seasons of growth. At first, it takes time for the snow and ice to melt, which may be the anger and hurt releasing. It seems like once this melts, you should feel much better. But what can happen is that the release of some emotions may uncover further problems. It is progress but does not always feel that way.

You need time to take care of the problems that have been waiting under the snow and ice. Slowly, with care, the grass can then heal and grow into the image of spring we cherish.

In the meantime, the muddy, torn grass has its own kind of beauty. Beauty that comes in packages of tender nurturing and smells of spring rain. We see faint but familiar glimpses of hope.

No matter what season of life you are in, look for the hope and promise that will come again. Spring follows winter, but not always as fast as we want.

Still, spring comes.