The sap is flowing! Every year when winter's grip on the landscape begins to weaken we tap a maple tree in our backyard for sap. Conditions have to be just right. The daytime temperature must climb to above freezing and the nighttime temperature need to dip below freezing, then the sap starts to flow. I bore a hole the diameter of a garden hose in the tree, jam a short hose into the hole, and put the other end into an empty milk jug. We boil down two gallons of the tree's sap to about a cup of liquid. Tah-dah! We have syrup. It's our way of celebrating that spring is here, almost.

You made a very good observation in your last letter. I agree. It often seems that people who have come through tough times are better for it. A good example is Jane, my parishioner who is dying. For more than twenty years she took care of her invalid husband Bob, a stroke victim. It was one of those strange situations where the stroke affected his speech and the easiest words for him to say were swear words! He died a few years ago, but Jane took their marriage vows seriously until death parted them. She's had other significant problems too, that pastor/parishioner confidentiality prohibits me from sharing. Now she's doing the hard work of dying from a terminal illness. In spite of it all, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has more joy. She also has a great heart for others, possessing far more concern for those around her than she has for herself.

Jane isn't reacting to her troubles, she's responding. I've always tried to see a difference between the two. It seems to me that reacting is an automatic reflex and responding is an intentional choice. Jane has been responding instead of reacting to her troubles, and it has made her a better person, not a bitter person. More and more I see God as the ultimate recycler; He's able to take something bad and have good come from it.

But I haven't only seen troubles deepen a faith already present; I've seen troubles prompt people to turn to God when they previously had little or no faith. I've observed that some people who start attending church frequently do so as a result of a crisis in their lives. It was C.S. Lewis who said that God whispers to us in our pleasure and shouts to us in our pain. He called pain God's megaphone.

I'm not trying to suggest that troubles, pain, suffering, or death are such wonderful experiences that we should welcome them. That would be sadistic. But God does seem able to use them, though I'll admit I don't always understand what He's doing.

What has helped me is to see life as a needlepoint piece. I've never done needlepoint; for one thing, I don't have the patience. But I've been given some as a gift. Viewing it from the top side, the needlepoint looks beautiful. But have you ever viewed the bottom side? There are all kinds of threads going different directions, with knots all over the place. From this point of view it really looks messy and there's no clear picture.

It seems to me that this is our current perspective on life. We're living life on the bottom side! It looks to us as if it's kind of messy and there's no clear picture of anything good that could come from it. God, on the other hand, is viewing it from the top side and is making something beautiful from what we see as ugliness. Someday, from heaven's perspective, we'll get the picture. But I don't think He expects us to understand His ways now, in our present earthly existence. He only asks that we trust Him and trust what He's doing.

I need to wrap this up. The sap's been flowing really well, and I'm sure I have an overflowing milk jug out by the tree. We used some of this year's syrup on our pancakes this morning. It sure tasted good, though I'll have to admit that our taste buds may have been influenced by the realization of all the work we put into making the syrup.

A fellow seeker after truth,

Dave