Spring Has Sprung!
Spring Has Sprung!
Pastor Barry Kerner
This morning I saw a true harbinger of spring. My children were wearing shorts to school! The last few months of winter found me shoveling snow and salting walkways. Before venturing outside each time I went through the ritual of finding a hat, scarf and a pair of matching gloves in the hat and glove basket on the bench by the back door. The basket is full to overflowing with winter apparel but seldom contains two gloves that match. Often I was struggling to grasp the snow shovel with two left handed gloves or making a new fashion statement with one black glove and one blue glove. The temperature is expected to rise to the sixties today and soon the basket and its cold weather accessories will be carried up to the attic to spend the warmer months out of sight and out of mind. Spring has sprung!!!
Spring is a season of warming weather and nature coming back to life. As the brown grasses slowly turn to verdant green, flowers begin to poke their way out of the muddy ground and animals are born. We, like the Earth are refreshed as we are reminded of the innocence and beauty that exists in this world. We are renewed as we experience the new life emerging all around us. As a Christian, we are given new life and new mercies every morning. Now, having begun to relegate the memories of the darkness of the short days of winter and their accompanying cold to the recesses of our minds, Spring provides a wonderful reminder to us that we should be living a full life and leaving the old dead parts of life behind. There has always been hope during the coldest, darkest winters of life that Spring will come and new life will come forth!
Just last week, we were starring out the kitchen morning waiting to see the first robin, or the first bud, or the first hint of green. We knew it’ was coming, but it just wasn’t here yet. Our hope was that Spring will soon arrive bringing light rain showers, pink flowers, chirping birds and the sound of buzzing bees.
And so we waited. We waited and hoped for spring because there is nothing we can do to hurry it along. The coming of spring is out of our control. In February we jokingly looked to Northwest Pennsylvania where a slumbering groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil, proceeded to predict how soon Spring and it’s warmer weather would be upon us. But we knew it’s really the God of the universe who brings each new season.
In Psalm 104:30 the author credits God with the newness of life. “You send forth your spirit, they are created: and you renew the face of the earth.” After the darkness of winter, new life is breathed into our dreary lives. Spring is the perfect metaphor for the gospel. It is God’s nature to make something new. In Spring we can observe many attributes of God and find His gospel plan throughout creation.
When was the last time you really took a good look at the intricacies of a spring flower? What about a budding tree branch soon to unfurl its leaves to redress the tree whose leaves died and fell to the ground last fall? Or one of the heralds of Spring, a red breasted robin? Romans 1:20 tells us, “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made…” All creation tells of the innovative and unique works of God’s hand.
God is also creative in story telling. His word speaks of the relationship between the Creator and us, His creation. Each story- including your story- is part of the whole but stands alone as a chapter in His book. No one else has a testimony just like yours. God draws people to Himself in different ways. You stand alone, wonderfully and fearfully made. (Psalm 139:14) Who would have thought that through death would come life more abundantly? (John 10:10) Through the blood and death of Jesus comes eternal life. How creative! The old is gone, a new life is emerging. Spring reminds us of the new life available through Jesus Christ
Winter, while beautiful in its own way, can be dreary and cold. After a long winter, when the snow has melted away and that first green leaf appears, joy explodes. All of a sudden, before you realize it, you can see green in other places along with yellow, pink…and smiles. Have you noticed that people begin to smile more when Spring arrives? God created us to be that way. The combination of increased light and warmth invigorates us. When it’s dark outside, our melatonin levels rise and cause us to feel sleepy. That means we have to work harder to stay alert during the long periods of darkness each day. The arrival of spring brings more daylight, so we can enjoy the energy that is no longer needed to fight off drowsiness. The increased light also triggers the release of serotonin, a brain chemical that helps us feel happier. The rising temperature means we’re more likely to be active, and as a result we release endorphin, the hormone that minimizes pain and boosts our good mood.
Before becoming a new creation we lived in a world of darkness-sin. Once a habitual life of sin is given over to the Lordship of Jesus, the Light of the World enters one’s heart. Salvation brings with it an altered mood-the Joy of the Lord. (Psalm 35:9) It’s indescribable! Believers in Jesus see the world differently and with more joy. The mood altering gospel of good news transfers a soul from the dreariness of sin into the newness of life and brings unimaginable peace and joy.
Even without a calendar, we know without a doubt that spring will arrive to the land around us. The seasons, after all, are cyclical. Just as we know the sun will rise every morning and set each evening, we know that every 3 months a new season will come forth in its time. Spring has come and after the seasons of summer, fall, and winter have passed away, Spring will come again. Our God who created all of these nature cycles is faithful to bring them about.
If we confess our sins, our God is also faithful and just to forgive those sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) But many times we seem to forget this. We try to fix our lives on our own and everything becomes out of sync and out of the cycle of life. Just as spring is “right around the corner,” God is “right there” when we stumble. He is ready to give us a new beginning and another chance.
In the Fall we ohh and ahh as the leaves turn from shades of green to shades of orange and reds. As winter sends it arctic blasts to strip the final leaves from the trees we may wonder why they had to die. Why did a living thing fall to the ground only to turn into dust?
It had to. The leaf had to fall and die. If it didn’t then the new leaves would not be able to bud forth the next Spring. In the same way, we must die to ourselves if we expect to live a new life. If we don’t, then the new life God wants for us will never be nourished and will not grow. We will never be able to serve God as He desires if we aren’t willing to surrender it all. The good news of the gospel is that those who are found in Christ Jesus may die but with the death of our lives comes the spring of eternal life.