Every spring —
Well, actually, late every winter, when we’re still pleading rain, still watching the water in the Sea of Galilee inch (centimeter?) up above the danger line, but I’m tired of wearing wool socks and sweaters inside (try a stone house if you want to live life cold) —
Then I go looking for the almond blossoms. Fluffy, pink, whole treefuls of them scattering a mess of petals on the ground and looking for all the world like spring has actually arrived.
And I can’t help it. I snap pictures and I talk (again and again) about that passage in Jeremiah, where God turns to puns to get His point across:
“Jeremiah, what do you see?”
“I see an almond branch.”
“You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.”
Now, the early-bloomer almond (in Hebrew) is sha-ked.
God calls Himself sha-kad —
The watcher.
Sleepless, eager, and alert to hasten His word from promises into facts on the ground.
PS It does me good, just seeing it over and over. If you’d like a copy of this photo as a desktop background, just leave me a note.
Elisabeth Adams 