Mud Season
The waters were dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked and saw that the face of the ground was drying. – Genesis 8:13 (NRSVUE)
Springtime typically evokes images of flowers poking out of crumbly soil, and fluffy baby animals frolicking through freshly green pastures. Those of us who live in places where winter involves several layers of snow and ice have a much stickier image of spring: it’s mud season.
Mud season is what happens after the rain and snow ceases, before the land is completely dry. In mud season, even the most carefully trod path results in gobs of wet dirt covering your boots and coating the hem of your pants. Sure, the land has thawed, but suddenly mud is everywhere: inside the car, clinging to the dog’s paws, tracked across every floor of the house. If you want the beauty of new growth and the return to life that the next season promises, you have to wait—and wade—through the mud.
This is more than a transition time. It’s the stickiness we must deal with in the aftermath of a difficult season of life and the healing that follows. I imagine Noah waiting for the rains to stop and the flood waters to recede. He sees the land drying but still he must wait for God to give him the signal that it is dry enough to plant his feet on. In the waiting he must reckon with what was sacrificed in the flood, who he has left behind, and prepare to face another unknown: sowing his family in a new land, spreading roots once again.
Mud season requires a steadiness of faith even when our faith is hidden beneath clumps of clay, trusting that God will pull us out, dry us off, and put us on solid ground once again.
Prayer
Meet us in the mud, dear God, so that together we can muck our way to a new season of life.
About the AuthorLiz Miller serves as the Designated Pastor of Granby Congregational Church, UCC and is the author of Only Work Sundays: A Laidback Guide to Doing Less while Helping Your Church Thrive.