2023 Spring Flower Show
MN Landscape Arboretum

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.” Revelation 21:6-7

We live in a broken, fractured world,  where we don’t always go about fixing our part in appropriate ways. In an effort to fix our families, we find ourselves alienated from people closest to us. Our fixing can create more problems than it solves. On a national and international scale, some of our attempts have led to catastrophic repercussions.

Among our friends and family are those who combat illness, loneliness and fear. There are lives battered by economic forces or the strain of mental illness. Addictions raise havoc and torment souls. Old grudges, simmering in the heart, leave shattered dreams strewn on their path.

We live in an imperfect world. One where life is not fair and justice isn’t always just. The question for us is, “How do we live in this imperfect world and do so with both integrity and grace?”

One path is to focus on our own hurt and pain . . . To ruminate on our losses, failure, shame, sins and fear. Preoccupied with ourselves it can be hard to notice what God is doing around us, in and through us.

The world that Isaiah lived in was also broken. Yet into that brokenness, God spoke words of hope and restoration. “Do not remember the former things . . or consider things of old . . I am about to do a new thing . . I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19

What would it mean to choose another path?  A path of putting away yesterday’s pain, brokenness and alienation . . . Trusting that God can take all of that, while leading us to a place of healing and hope?  God can take a life and recreate it. God can move the mountains in our lives. Life in Christ is not only for some future day of resurrection. God is at work in our lives today, restoring the broken.  Ever-ready to give water to those who ask . . . Waters of peace, wholeness and restoration.