Spring

I went out into the yard with my little Sony Cyber-shot and celebrated new life, the Camellia bushes beginning to bloom, pruned rose bushes letting out new growth, a wild profusion of violets and other purple flowers scattered here and there, the lilac bush budding, and even blackberry bushes and peach trees showing promise for the coming summer.

I also went down into our basement and found and old tucked-away school project, dating back to my high school days. For this particular English assignment we were asked to combine some artistic element with a poetry theme of our choice. My theme ended up being, "I Believe in God." The reason I wanted to check out this project now, was to find a specific poem I knew was in there . . . a poem that obviously said something to me as a 16 or 17 year old. It was written by Marcie Hans, probably sometime soon after man landed on the moon.

FUELED

Fueled
By a million
Man-made
wings of fire -
The rocket tore a tunnel
Through the sky -
and everybody cheered.
Fueled
only by a thought from God -
The seedling
Urged its way
Through the thickness of black -
And as it pierced
The heavy ceiling of the soil -
And launched itself
Up into outer space -
No
One
Even
Clapped.

Marcie Hans

When our projects were ready to be handed in, our teacher had us pass them around and we had the chance to comment on each other's work. Being a very shy and quiet kind of girl, this was really out of my comfort zone, but . . . looking back, I think it was one way I could let my peers know what I believed, although, not without some trepidation.

So, at the end of my project there are 39 comments, mostly positive - but varying , from "It's alright if you believe in god!" or "Jesus freak huh" to "A truly moving project" and "This is too good, the best I've seen."

These signed comments bring back images of faces long forgotten. It's been at least 35 years . . . and I wonder where they are today. Have they all had the chance to see God do something in their lives . . . something that has shown them that He is real? I would wish so.