It’s always a toss-up here in Nebraska when Spring Break falls in early March as to whether our kids will be playing in the snow or enjoying true spring weather. Luckily for us, the latter was the case this year. Whether you traveled for Spring Break or stayed home, I hope you had an opportunity to get outside and enjoy the promise of spring.
Don’t you just love the way God speaks to us through his creation? Psalm 19:1-4 tells us:
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”
And again in Romans 1:20, we read:
“For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”
Nothing in creation speaks more clearly of God’s power in redemption than the coming of spring. Everything that one day looks dead and cold and hopeless suddenly bursts with new life as the weather warms and spring returns.
My mother died in January of 2007 in the midst of a bitter, snow-filled winter. I can still remember the first spring after her passing. Here’s an excerpt from my journal during that time:
“What a cold, long winter it has been. But today I feel just like the world around me, as if something cold and bleak inside of me is beginning to melt because I keep leaking. I cried when I saw the first crocuses bloom by my gate a few weeks ago. And I’ve been crying ever since. . . . Thank you again, Jesus, for giving us the victory over death. Without that hope, there would be no spring.”
Whatever season your soul is in right now, take time this week to get out and read God’s message to you. The crocuses are blooming again. I’ve seen them. The maple trees are heavy with buds. No matter how bleak or dead or hopeless life seems right now, God is whispering His promises: new life . . . new beginnings . . . and HOPE.