SPRING!

I love the Spring.  I love watching Earth’s renewal taking place all around me. Everywhere I look I see the swelling buds and green things pushing up through the ground and I’m reminded of God’s resurrection life.  Fall speaks to me of the need for death before there can be life, Winter reminds me of the blood of Jesus that washes white as snow, and Summer comes along with its slow, deliberate growth and maturity; but Spring is all about resurrection and new beginnings.

 

I never cease to be amazed at how much spiritual knowledge we gain just by observing nature.  It should be no great surprise considering that every creation is an expression of the Creator and reveals something about Him.  As we look at the world around us, we can perceive great mysteries about the God of the universe if we just have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

 

I get the itch this time of year to work up the ground in my little garden plot, sow the seeds, and set the young plants that will provide food on our table later in the summer.  As I place the seeds in the furrow, I am reminded of Jesus’ parable of the sower.  The seeds themselves all have the same potential for growth and fruitfulness, but the parable teaches us that their success depends much on externals.  And so it is in our lives as well.  Tribulation, persecution, cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches – these all have the power to scorch and choke the Word of God (that precious seed) and the new life that it contains so that it dies and becomes unfruitful.  Just as it is important for me to constantly tend my garden, and weed out the things that would hurt the tender plants, it is even more important for me to tend my soul.  I must protect the tender truths that my heavenly Father is planting in my heart from the things that would hinder and destroy their growth and ultimate fruition.

 

Jesus teaches us in the twelfth chapter of St. John that unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the ground and dies, it will always remain just one kernel of wheat – nothing more.  If it is buried and dies, however, it multiplies itself many times over.  I think much about my own fruitfulness for God, and realize that it is absolutely dependant on how much I am willing to die to myself.  Jesus said, “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” (John 12:25).  Oh, how I need to die to this carnal nature so that the precious life of the Son of God might be born, and mature, in me.  We must all be like kernels of wheat and die to ourselves.  Only then can the germ of spiritual life within us burst forth and grow.  Only by doing this can the love of God be perfected in us.  Jesus set this example.  He died to Himself so that by His death a great harvest could be gathered in.  He said, "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." (Matthew 26:39).  We must follow His example.  The Word of God can then spring forth in our lives and in our very nature.  We can then experience this resurrection life - this transformation - that changes us a little more each day into the image of our Maker. 

 

Yes, of all the seasons, I love the Spring the best because it is the season of hope, of new beginnings, of life from death, and of the power of resurrection.  As we celebrate our Lord's victory over the grave, let us be ever mindful that this resurrection power is something that God has given us to escape the corruption that is in the world through our own lust and self-serving nature.  Every sin, every heartache, every temptation, every threatening circumstance of life - all have been defeated by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ once and for all.  Our Spring has come, and it ushers in a Summer of growth and spiritual maturity.  

 

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." (Philippians 3:10, 11).