Of Butterflies and Honeysuckle

Do you love the smell of honeysuckle as much as I do? And does it just make you so nostalgic you could weep?

This is the time of year when changes are on the horizon. For those of us in education--or for those who have loved ones in education--our schedules are full of end-of-school programs and graduation events. It's a sweet and busy time of year. As we go about these busy days, the evenings are redolent with the heady aroma of honeysuckle. We may not always take time to notice it, but when May rolls around again, and that fragrance hits our nostrils, we are overcome with a mixed sense of accomplishment, anticipation, and loss.

It's always good to feel accomplishment, it can be exciting to feel anticipation, and sometimes it's appropriate to leave behind one thing to allow room for the next adventure.

The old and familiar feels so comfortable and predictable that we may be tempted to hold on. But, as we were reminded in church on Sunday morning, some changes necessarily come with stress and pain. That is how we fly! (If you missed the Sunday morning sermon, read up on butterflies.)

When Jesus healed a blind man outside Jericho, Mark tells us the man "cast away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus" (10:50). When I was in college, our campus Bible study group used to sing a song that said, "The best thing in my life I ever did do was to take off the old robe and put on the new."

Paul talked about "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead" (Philippians 3:13), not as if those things didn't matter but knowing that they brought us here so that we can move on to the next area of service and growth.

I personally dislike change, but God is helping me learn that change can be good, even when it hurts. Change brings new people and new opportunities, and--as I said to a student recently--when you quit changing, you're dead.

This has been, and continues to be, a lovely spring. The honeysuckle and the gardenia and all the other beautiful and heartbreaking scents will continue to stir my emotions, I'm sure. But I pray I can remember to enjoy each moment and welcome the good things--even the changes--to come, looking forward to what God has in store.

--Sherry Poff