They looked like little grave markers dotting the floor of the woods.

While I was visiting up north in early March, we went walking at a local park and found ourselves on the wildflower trail.  Only there weren’t any wildflowers at that time of year.  There were still a few piles of snow around, and the marks of winter were still very evident. 

But nestled among the dead leaves and fallen branches were these little metal markers with flower names in Latin indicating where those flowers would be when Spring finally came, when the season changed and the warmth of the sun found its way to the park again.  They looked kind of sad.  Hard to believe what they were telling me to imagine.

It was like they were saying, “Here!  Right here! This is where something beautiful is going to happen!”

I wonder if there are markers in my own life, too.   Markers placed by God in the middle of situations where Spring seems very far away.  I wonder if He’s trying to get me to notice that He’s saying, “Here!  Right here!  This is where something beautiful is going to happen!”.  And it may not look like it, but something is happening – I just can’t see it yet.

I checked with my sister yesterday.  She had been back to the park the day before.  And sure enough,  next to the markers, bold little plants are pushing their way through the dirt and the leaves.  Something beautiful is happening there.

And I believe it’s happening here as well.

I will work a work in your days which you would not believe though it were told you.   Habakkuk 1:5

Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.  Isaiah 42:9

Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.  Joshua 21:25

For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.  Isaiah 61:11