Old Order Mennonite Memoirs

"The Surprise"

"When I see a snowdrop,

I just have to stop and gaze.

This miracle that happens

In the worst of winter's days

Always takes my breath away.

I can't believe it's true.

It looks so frail and beautiful,

So fresh and white and new.

It steals into the world

Before you realize it's there.

When the skies are bleak and bitter

And the trees are bare,

Secretly the snowdrop

Comes to ring her fairy bell

Like some shy soft-footed stranger

With good news to tell.

In this poem by Patience Strong, the snowdrop is a flower. My sister and I "stopped and gazed at this miracle that happens" when we...