The earliest spring flowers are pioneers. Each April, they are the first to expose their vulnerable blossoms.

   Sometimes, like the new forsythia in the photograph, they they are seared by a winter not ready to retreat. This may burn them but it never daunts them.     

   Love is the gold we seek – enduring love. The pioneers among us take the highest risks to find it. When they succeed they are rewarded with life's richest gift. But, in the risking, they are always subject, like the forsythia, to pain.

   We all want to love and be loved. We all hope to create life's finest union.

   When two souls unite – whether for a few moments in a caregiving encounter or in a longer sacred relationship, can their love withstand winter's certain assault? Only when lovers survive storms can they know that God has crowned their union.   

   "…do you love me?" the resurrected Christ asked Peter  (John 21:15-17) When Peter replied that he did, Jesus said, simply, "feed my sheep."  Then Jesus asked him a second time and again a third. Each time Peter, with increasing irritation, protested that of course he loved Jesus.

   Why did Christ persist? Of course, Peter had denied him three times before Jesus' death on the cross.

   Why did Jesus tell Peter, "feed my sheep"?

   Herein lies your injunction. If you love God, you will Love those in need as well as those you desire.

   This is the essence of a sacred encounter. When you help with holy intention you bless yourself and the other. Sympathy means to suffer another's pain. Only Love can empower survival.

   If you think you love another ask yourself how you feel when trouble comes. If your love fades was it ever love?   

   There is no harder experience for caregivers than to love patients that spit at them, co-workers who betray them, and supervisors who punish instead of affirm.  

   Perhaps, this is why Love seems to be in hiding when, in the middle of spring, a beautiful bloom is suddenly struck by snow. Look again, the blossom is unbowed.

-Rev. Erie Chapman

Photograph: "Snow-Capped Forsythia" copyright erie chapman 2013