Rainbows and Verdant Greening

Maple keys at the Calendar Garden

Kristy Shellenberger Yordy's sermon at Assembly this morning was The colors of the new covenant -- in our midst, on our heart and she created a rainbow as she talked of the former covenants and the way their colors are woven into the new covenant described in Jeremiah 31. Daughters Sophie and Meiling helped by pouring a rainbow of M & M's into a bowl and leading the congregation in a repeated response of "The days are surely coming...when I will make a new covenant."

The rainbow of colors continued in various spots around Goshen this afternoon. It's an amazing spring -- we hardly had a trace of our usual muddy March.

Redbud blossoms at Faith House -- if you're near Goshen, be sure to drive by Witmer Woods this week for a redbud extravaganza.

Tulips at Faith House

Diamond clad daffodil in our backyard

Tulip from our backyard

In the evening we joined a worship service at Benton Mennonite, celebrating the feminine face of God as the Grower. I don't have the words of the song we sang that drew on the words of Hildegarde of Bingen, but here's another quote by her that includes her frequent theme of "greening" -- and as creation awakens this spring, and with all the resounding melody I've enjoyed today, it seems particularly apt.

Without the Word of God no creature has being. God's Word is in all creation, visible and invisible. The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. All creation is awakened, called, by the resounding melody, God's invocation of the Word.      Hildegarde of Bingen

Jennifer Byler Youngberg painted the beautiful silk banner below as a visual for the service. And bringing the rainbow imagery full circle today, we poured a rainbow of colored sands into vases in celebration of the way even the tiniest seed and the tiniest grain of sand is held in God's love.