1816 & 2020. What about 2021?

Today, May 1, Dutch Sheets' #GiveHim15 is about new wine and new wineskins. https://dutchsheets.org/index.php/category/gh15/ is his site. He well describes neos wine and kainos wineskins.

As I listened, I was looking outside. It was snowing! Vermont always gets snow in April. My grandmother would plant peas on her April birthday. Mom would say, "Snow on the peas." 

But even for this jaded VT citizen, snow on May 1 is something new. "Eighteen hundred and froze to death" comes to mind. 

https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death/#:~:text=The%20summer%20of%201816%20has%20been%20called%20‘the,failures%2C%20killing%20livestock%20and%20creating%20calamitous%20food%20shortages.

A volcanic eruption caused the 1816 chill and calamity. Fast forward to present day. 2020 was its own volcanic eruption. Is there hope through such misery? I believe there is. Looking outside, I see:

1. My peach trees are blossoming. Since they budded, we have had snow and at least 3 hard frosts. They are still blossoming!
2. The maples blossomed, almost two weeks early.
3. This week, all on one day, the ant hills appeared. They weren't there the day before. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, if you count my back yard.

Symbolically, I believe that God is doing something extraordinary for His children, for those who love Him and call on His name.

1. We are being strengthened, made "cold-hardy," like the peach flowers.
2. The ability to reproduce and share sweetness, like the maple flowers, will come quickly. Sooner than you expect!
3. Industry, work and provision will come suddenly. When the conditions are right, innumerable opportunities and growth, even relationships, will overrun you, just like the ant hills.

I will close with a few verses that are speaking to me. Perhaps they will speak to you today, too.

Isaiah 43:18-19. Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Psalm 147:16. He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.

Proverbs 6:6-8. Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise. Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

Song of Solomon 2:10-13. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle [dove] is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

Blessings,

Mir