White as snow

This week the Bradford pear trees have been the talk of the town, or at least the clinic where I work.  People come in and will comment something like, "Well, have you seen the Bradfords today?" or "Those Bradfords across the street just keep getting prettier."  Granted, working in a PT clinic we discuss the weather a lot and I think the changing of the seasons counts as weather where small talk is concerned.  It seemed like everywhere I was there was talk about spring.  Once again most of this was at work-- Are your tomato seeds coming up yet?  I better get my lawn mower tuned up.  I need you to fix my back pain so I can get out in the garden.  What do you mean I can't use my arm after surgery-- who is going to prune my rose bushes?  It seems like this past week spring as been in the air.
One reason everyone has been talking about the Bradford pear trees is that our clinic looks out over about 10 Bradford pears trees that started to blossom on Monday and Tuesday and are now a brilliant white.  (Side note: Our clinic is on the 4th floor of a 4 story building with the orthopedic clinic.  I'm not sure who the brains were behind this design.  If for some reasons the elevators aren't working properly I might has well go home for the day because only about 5% of my patients can walk up 4 flights of stairs.  They have told me that it gets interesting if we have a fire drill because we have to make sure everyone gets out-- including those in wheelchairs or with knee replacements.  Any way there is my rant.)  Since we are on the 4th floor often when I look out the windows I just see the tops of the trees and this week once I had to do a double take since all I saw was white-- it took a second to realize it wasn't a freak snow storm but just the pear trees' blossoms that were white as snow.
This week on my drive to work I was listening to a CD when the song "Jesus Paid It All".  The chorus is as follows: "Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow." The song instantly made me think of the Bradford pears and what a reminder during this Easter season about what was done on the cross washing us white again and giving new life--- just like spring.  (Side Note: In the last post I shared that sometimes I have had trouble hearing and understanding phrases correctly.  It wasn't till I was in high school or college that I realized the above hymn wasn't necessarily about snow leopards.  One of the lines in the song is that Christ has the power to "change a leper's spots".  I was hearing this as "leopard's spots" which I thought was strange to be singing about in church.)
We live on the edge of a tall grass prairie region.  In this area each spring large portions of the grass is burned which allows the grass to green up more quickly.  On Friday it was a calm day so while I didn't see anyone burning the air was kind of smoky and hazy for miles around.  That evening Arthur and I took a bike ride and when we got back we both had scratchy throats from breathing the smoky air.  However this sign of spring was another good reminder of a spiritual parallel.  Sometimes it takes a "controlled burn" in our lives to get rid of the "dead" stuff and to clear the way for fresh new growth to come in.  While this "controlled burn" process such as trials or hardships isn't fun the latter results are worth it if we keep our eyes open.  The blackened charred fields I drive by every day will be plush and green in a few weeks.  Omnia Vincit Amor.