Of trees and seasons

This is a tree outside my classroom. (For those of you who don't know me I am a teacher of children who are deaf.) One of the senior students at our school loves trees. He enjoys standing under the trees and looking up at the leaves and enjoying the effect of the light filtering through the trees. Then in autumn he delights in shaking the trees and watching the leaves as they swirl to the ground. A favourite past time is to rake up the fallen leaves. Today I watched said student shake the tree and wait for the brown leaves fall, but nothing happened, so he began to delicately and carefully remove the leaves. They are strongly attached though and with a look of disappointment e wandered off to look at the trees that have already lost their leaves. He will continue through the winter examining the trees waiting for the first signs of spring. When he spots the first sign of green buds he will run about excitedly telling everyone that the buds are back.

This got me thinking about how I approach the various seasons that I go through in my everyday life. Do I approach things in life with the same love, care, anticipation and excitement ? Do I respond to God in the same way when I am going through hard times? Do I wait patiently for God to show the green buds of a situation being solved, or do I fail to see His hand at work, and just see the cold bare lifeless branches?