By JIM FUHRMEISTER / Guest Columnist

Spring is here! Even though we have the occasional cold snaps, the flowering trees and singing birds tell us that spring has come again. This is a wonderful time of year, a time of renewal and hope.

My family is looking forward to my oldest son Chris’s wedding to his beautiful fiancée Sally. She has a wonderful soul and is good for Chris and him for her. I am so proud and happy for them both and I am enjoying sharing their excitement as we plan the wedding.

We are also looking forward to my youngest son Will graduating from Auburn in May with a degree in industrial design.

Frankly, his freshman year was not the best, but he has worked very hard in a very difficult program and will be completing his degree in four years. Our family is sharing in the excitement of Will’s graduation but we are uncertain about his future. He is busy job hunting and applying to graduate schools all over the world. I will have to make sure my passport is current.

When spring comes, children seem to laugh harder and louder, we seem to walk with a lighter step and joy is in the air. Bright colors come out of our closets, flowers are planted and music fills our lives. Spring is a happy time.

But some of our friends have experienced terrible tragedies recently. Their pain is deeper than words can describe; their darkness seems to know no boundaries.

As a community, we search for ways to comfort and ease the suffering of the friends we love. We help where we can, we pray, but through it all we feel inadequate because we can do little to relieve their suffering. It is dark times.

In our hearts, we know this: as surely as spring comes, time heals. In the darkest days of our winters, we think spring will never come, but it does. And it will. It is the knowledge that spring will come one day that gives us hope. Even more, for Christians, it is our faith and the celebration of Easter that gets us through the darkest of times.

I pray that my friends will be comforted by the warm embrace of our Lord and they will understand that, with time, they will hear the music of spring again.

Jim Fuhrmeister is the probate judge for Shelby County.