The coming of spring shows all God can do to change a cold, dirty, drab world. It is a season of hope.
Why, if you’d never seen a spring, if all you’ve known is winter and I described to you warmth, gentle sunshine, daffodils, trees leafy in green, bees buzzing—you’d never believe a word of it, especially if I were to tell you it was all coming in a few weeks.
Ah, but spring does come. And it brings with it every delight! It is as if every spring rewrites the Creation story in Genesis every year!
The church’s message of the Resurrection of Christ, and both the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting with God, sounds equally astounding.
“’Tis a thing consummately to be desired,” as William Shakespeare put it. But for many, it is simply unbelievable.
That is why I think God put the Passover/Easter celebration in the spring of every year. “See,” God exclaims, “I can kill winter and I can also kill death. I can transform a winter-bare landscape and I can bring new life to sin-enslaved people. I can light up your world and your life with living color, birdsong, and fragrance. Believe you Me!”
The church has been mute to speak of such grace. We’ve fled the realm of mere words and tried to express our joy with dance, song and poetry.
“Awake, thou wintry earth-
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness.”
These few lines are from Thomas Blackburn’s An Easter Hymn; and these few lines are but my feeble attempt to say it’s all true. Every word. For me. For you.
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