My favorite tree is a towering white pine because it’s majestic, soft, and always green. My favorite bird is the red cardinal because he jumps out at you and his call is very certain. My favorite fish are walleyes because their early spring bite is very subtle and they are delicious if you catch some. And my favorite flower is the crocus because it’s the most courageous blooming thing in the ground. Against the odds, it punches its little round head through the last snow of winter and announces to the world, “Tada! Spring is here.” You have to love a flower with an attitude like that. 

When “flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come” (Song of Songs 2:12). So let’s all be on crocus watch. Let’s keep our eyes peeled for the earliest signs that we’re heading out of the rough seasons of our lives. Better days are coming. Let’s all sing, “Tada!”

Let’s not just be on crocus watch for ourselves. Let’s be on crocus watch for one another. That’s how polio was cured and measles were eradicated and why more people are surviving cancer. People were on crocus watch for one another. Some saw that titanium and plastic could blossom into new hips and knees. Some had a hunch the power of sun and wind could become power we can plug into. In every season, wide-eyed people are on crocus watch. And “Tada!” God makes our lives better through them.