Minister’s Message: Sun’s return a reminder of all that is to come

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 29, 2026

If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say, with deep exasperation, “It’s been a long winter.” Well, I wouldn’t be so anxious every time I filled up my gas tank!

But it really has been a long, and I mean long winter.

I’m writing this a few days after we had our first consecutive days of sunshine in at least a month, and the world feels like a different place when you finally feel the warmth on your skin. Many of us played in our gardens this weekend, believing that more sunshine is to come.

The summer adventures look like they’re starting, despite the slow start, with long lines of RVs and vehicles loaded with camping supplies headed on and off the Peninsula.

Live music is amping up — see what I did there?! — and it feels like we’re able to remove some of the layers of winter, both physically and metaphorically.

I always feel a bit lighter and freer when I am able to move through the world without taking the time to put on socks and tie my boots but can just slip on sandals.

There’s something comforting and reassuring in the transition of seasons, because it means that we are both going backward to something that’s familiar and also going forward to something new. Our bodies remember past springs and summers. Our bodies also anticipate what is to come for this spring and summer. We go back to our favorite hikes, campsites, fishing holes, as a way to both have this moment, here and now, while also remembering every other time we have gathered in that place.

Now that the sun has appeared, I’m mentally planning my summer of adventures, returning to things I have loved and trying out new things for the first time.

Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, “It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”

Whether it is because of our faith system or any values that we hold, the earth and its seasons have been there in the past for us and is anticipating what new will unfold each day ahead of us. The poems of the earth tell us stories about where we have been in our and lives and where we are heading, even if that is still so unknown.

Spring is the reminder that the story is still unfolding, but is rooted in the past, the rocks, the soil, the waters, the depths of the earth. Spring is the unfolding of the trees and leaves, flowers and buds, the new life and fresh growth. And as this blossoms and blooms, as the poems are recited by heart, our bodies are reminded that there is more to come in this world than just a very long winter.

Pastor Meredith Harber is the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Soldotna. Worship at 10 a.m. on Sundays.