During the winter everyone retreats. It is cold. The sun is brief and the buildings seem to match the sky, a nice shade of boring grey. The trees retreat. The birds retreat. The people retreat. I retreat.

This is an exhale.

I wait in anticipation for

Spring.

Some people think of spring as a time to clean. Some think of spring break. If you are in Georgia, it is the time of year when you can’t find your car because all of them are the nasty shade of pollen yellow.

In Timisoara, in the spring, the city seems to take a deep  i n h a l e.

The sun comes out and the colors start to appear. The tree outside my window puts out green buds. The parks and center get a face lift with fresh plants. The men come back to the park for games of chess. The women to the front stoop to gossip. The birds sing a song of awakening. The tulips and daffodils fill the street vendors buckets. The pink trees line the street as a sign of life. The terraces and outside tables fill the square signaling time for gatherings with friends (and gelato).

I   N  H  A   L   E              L  I  F  E

BREATH      DEEP

I love Timisoara in the spring. God made everything with a rhythm. God made the Earth with seasons.  God made us with a rhythm of breath. inhaling. exhaling. He made us with a rhythm of life and death.

Easter is approaching us this weekend in Timi. (we celebrate with the orthodox church calendar so it is different from countries who use the catholic calendar.) As spring continues to return with each daily breath the city takes, I am reminded of Easter. That Christ’s exhale was not his last. Jesus’ death on the cross was my inhale for eternal life. Through Christ, my rhythm can continue past my breath and I can praise God in eternity.

The grave was the exhale and the resurrection the i n h a l e.

As the Earth has it’s rhythm of spring , may it remind you of Christ’s exhale and sacrifice on the cross and the  i n h a l e  of eternal life that was given to us through the His resurrection.

“day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”  -Revelation 4:8