The Promise of Things to Come

     My son was taking out the garbage the other day when he suddenly surprised me by poking his head in the doorway and shouted, "Mom, come quick! You've got to come here right now!"
     Of course, my mom nerves jerked awake as I automatically assumed the worst. I quickly dried my hands from the dishwater and raced down the steps to the door. 
     "What is it?" I asked expecting to see something broken, hurt, bleeding, or something else horrible out in the driveway. 
     "Listen!" he looked at me with wide eyes. "The birds! They're all singing! It sounds like spring!" 
     My heart slowly stopped pounding in my ears, enough for me to focus on the wonderful songs of the Red Wing Blackbirds sitting in the trees surrounding our yard. Robins chirped as they hunted for worms in the brown grass. Blue jays squawked at some enemy nearby in the woods. I closed my eyes to take it all in. Even though the temperatures were still hovering around 50 degrees or less, the rays of the sun felt warm on my face. 
     "Mom, spring is coming! You can hear it all around us!" 
     I had to agree. It was a welcomed sound. March had blown in like a lion, throwing a snowstorm in once every week for the first three weeks. It left like a lamb, as the saying goes, but April blew in like a bear. We are ready to see green again, to see the rainbow colors of flowers as they shoot up from the cold, barren earth. Even my son, who loves the snow and cold, who even loves to run barefoot outside our house after a storm, was ready for nice weather. 
     "I can't wait to go biking with the guys," he told me happily. 
     I had never heard him so happy to hear bird songs. My tough as nails son, at least on the outside, once again showed me that he is soft as a teddy bear inside. He is growing up. Maturing before my eyes. Blooming like the Crocuses and Dew Drops that are spilling all over my lawn.  He still likes to tease, but he is changing for the better. It does not take eight times for him to learn a lesson as it did when he was three years old. Not everything he touches breaks in his hands now.  He just turned 17 in March. He will get a job this year. He is going to focus on his driving this summer and probably get his license as soon as he turns 18. Where has the time gone? 
     As I thought about what the songs of the birds revealed to me, that good things are on their way, I thought about what my young teenage son was showing me - that good things are coming for him too. Not just the promise of spring in the world of Wallingford so he could go biking, but also the promise of "spring" for my son Caleb's life. There will be no holding back as he blooms into a young man learning to face the world. As long as he keeps God at the center of his life, the season of spring will be a marvelous time of joy and learning.