This is the first week of spring. Signs of spring on the calendar include spring break – coming up for school children here, recently passed for college students – and Easter, Ramadan, and Passover. We also see signs of spring in the natural world: some warmer days; the very earliest of spring flowers; the return of birdsong; and the longer daylight.
Which leads me to reflect on the spiritual significance of spring. In last Sunday’s worship service we sang “Lo, the Earth Awakes Again,” which includes the lyric How our spirits soar and sing! How our hearts leap with the spring! This certainly reflects my own joy in the season. For me the Michigan winter is challengingly long, cold and dark. The same hymn also includes this line: Now the dark cold days are o’er; Spring and gladness are before. In my spirit, I do lean into the hopeful thought that the beauty of May and the long days of the summer are before us.
Also on Sunday I asked Roxanne to read Mark Belletini’s poem “During Wartime.” The war in Iran is weighing heavily on my spirit and the poem speaks beautifully of the hope for a world of peace. And it contains these lines:
What indeed can we do?
We can breathe. We can feel heartache.
We can breathe. We can be loyal to spring.
We can be loyal to spring. Up until now, I was thinking of what springtime does for me. Does
“being loyal to spring” mean that I give something back as well? Perhaps being loyal to spring means paying attention: being aware of the natural beauty and the miracle of the Earth orbiting the Sun. Loyalty in this case would mean: I promise to pay attention to the flowers. I pledge to appreciate the joy and hope of springtime. And in the context of the poem about war –in this world in which war and other terrible things seem to surround us – being loyal to spring means being loyal to hope. What can we do, the poet asks, in the face of war and tragedy? We can be loyal to spring: it is a two-way covenant between ourselves and nature. Nature keeps her promise every year, just when we need it the most, with the magic of spring. Our part in the bargain is to interact with the spring (physically and spiritually), keeping alive our sense of joy, wonder, and hope. In this union between ourselves and nature both parties benefit. And it would be disloyal to Spring if we stayed in darkness and despair.
PRAYER:
Blessed be the balance of light and dark on the equinox: the same 12 hours of day and night in every corner of the Earth.
Blessed be the melting of snow, the sunshine, and the later sunsets.
Blessed be the easing of fear in my human heart: the hope that Spring invites me into.
May the coming of spring bring joy and hope to Bagdad and Tel Aviv; to Boston and Ann Arbor.
May we rejoice in our partnership with nature and be grateful for her sacred gifts.
Amen.
Rev. Drew Frantz
March 24, 2026
Which leads me to reflect on the spiritual significance of spring. In last Sunday’s worship service we sang “Lo, the Earth Awakes Again,” which includes the lyric How our spirits soar and sing! How our hearts leap with the spring! This certainly reflects my own joy in the season. For me the Michigan winter is challengingly long, cold and dark. The same hymn also includes this line: Now the dark cold days are o’er; Spring and gladness are before. In my spirit, I do lean into the hopeful thought that the beauty of May and the long days of the summer are before us.
Also on Sunday I asked Roxanne to read Mark Belletini’s poem “During Wartime.” The war in Iran is weighing heavily on my spirit and the poem speaks beautifully of the hope for a world of peace. And it contains these lines:
What indeed can we do?
We can breathe. We can feel heartache.
We can breathe. We can be loyal to spring.
We can be loyal to spring. Up until now, I was thinking of what springtime does for me. Does
“being loyal to spring” mean that I give something back as well? Perhaps being loyal to spring means paying attention: being aware of the natural beauty and the miracle of the Earth orbiting the Sun. Loyalty in this case would mean: I promise to pay attention to the flowers. I pledge to appreciate the joy and hope of springtime. And in the context of the poem about war –in this world in which war and other terrible things seem to surround us – being loyal to spring means being loyal to hope. What can we do, the poet asks, in the face of war and tragedy? We can be loyal to spring: it is a two-way covenant between ourselves and nature. Nature keeps her promise every year, just when we need it the most, with the magic of spring. Our part in the bargain is to interact with the spring (physically and spiritually), keeping alive our sense of joy, wonder, and hope. In this union between ourselves and nature both parties benefit. And it would be disloyal to Spring if we stayed in darkness and despair.
PRAYER:
Blessed be the balance of light and dark on the equinox: the same 12 hours of day and night in every corner of the Earth.
Blessed be the melting of snow, the sunshine, and the later sunsets.
Blessed be the easing of fear in my human heart: the hope that Spring invites me into.
May the coming of spring bring joy and hope to Bagdad and Tel Aviv; to Boston and Ann Arbor.
May we rejoice in our partnership with nature and be grateful for her sacred gifts.
Amen.
Rev. Drew Frantz
March 24, 2026
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