As a teenager, Dad and I would take walks along the parkways near home. When I was having trouble in school or feeling miserably depressed, he simply showed me the new wildflowers blooming by the grass.
“Look over there, see them growing,” he would say.
Just a little encouraging springtime sentiment from him showed me the promise of growth and a renewal in life. Sadness did not overtake me.
In these weeks after Easter, we are with Christ in the promise of the new season and in the increase of love spending time with our friends and family. It becomes a love abundantly clear and similar to what Jesus taught with the parable about the kingdom of heaven and the mustard seed. We start out small, like being shown a small wildflower, and increase our love of life toward happiness.
“It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.” — Matthew 13:32
Nature is promised to grow throughout the world. Here this butterfly alights in Kavule, Uganda. Uganda is one of the countries where CARITAS has locations for its Catholic child sponsorship programs.
It’s in these words of Jesus that the goodness and joy of life is felt within us today. CARITAS For Children’s Catholic child sponsorship programs reveal this feeling of comfort and happiness to children in need. This is the increase, growth and the promise of love that we are shown.
Sure enough, in the months of spring, nature is promised to grow. With a sponsored child, loving feelings and growth prevail.
Dad and I could have gone fishing, washed a car or watched television on some of those spring days. Instead, he gave me a treasure and it was a living grace, a gift of hope and encouragement.