NEED

God's light shines for everybody, so get outta' His way,
 'cause nothing grows in the shadows.

-Jake Owen song

March is FINALLY over.

Remember those daffodils I talked about way back in SIGN?

Well, look at them now:

They are huge!  And soon I'll have pretty flowers on my counter.

They aren't quite ready yet....they look to me like they'd be at about fifth grade in the span of their life.

In a way, they take me right back to fifth grade too.

You see, in this little town of Hartford, there are two elementary schools.

One of them is called "Woodside Elementary,"

because it sits beside a span of woods. 

Genius.

Every April the teachers would take us on little walking adventures through the woods, where we would also get the chance to pick a handful of daffodils to take home to mom or grandma.

Sometimes I gave mine to a teacher.

I particularly remember in fifth grade we would each be assigned a kindergartner, and we were to be a role model to them and help them.  They went on the walk with us.

My kindergartner is welcoming her first child very soon, just in time for daffodils to bloom.

But life is so hard in fifth grade! 

You are so close to adolescence and yet so far away.

You pray to be treated as an adult, and then when you are,

you don't want it yet.

What you need is the perfect balance, just like these daffodils have needed the perfect balance of sunlight all through the dreary freezing flooded month of March.  Amazing, really, that anything known to man could actually grow in the month of March. 

But they do.

And so do we.  We just somehow find the sunlight we need. 

We seek it out and turn our faces towards it.

And just like a daffodil, I don't need full sunshine all day long every day.  I can get by on the glimmers that peek through the clouds just before a spring snow shower.  I can deal with the glimpse of light before the clouds roll in on an overcast day.  Because I have light from a greater source.

And I have a feeling, that for whatever reason, He made us just like he made the daffodils, hardy and strong enough to grow, even in the month of March.