Spring

Born Again

Spring is faith, hope and love.  It is grace painted on nature’s canvas by the Master Himself.  Every year God winds the clock and life begins another season.  Things wind down in autumn and are pretty much spent by winter’s end.  The land lays dormant and all but dead, waiting for the same voice that called to Lazarus to  “Come forth.” 

Every year, about this time we are ready for spring.  Like clockworks, God has ordained the seasons. Just as a timepiece is driven by a curled piece of steel, the earth is quickened by the kindness of God.  If the heavens declare the glory of God, the blossoms, and the crocus chorus a loud AMEN!

Faith.  Only faith would bury a seed in the broken earth and believe in a greater day called harvest.  Only faith would give up what it has, somehow believing that in that giving up there is a greater getting.  One grain of corn contains the promise of a dozen ears and thousands of offspring made in its own likeness.  Spring dares us to believe.

Hope.  Hope actually comes before faith.  Hope sets the stage for faith.  Saint Job spoke of a tree that had been felled by an axe leaving only a stump.  He pointed out that at the scent of water the laws of God and nature hold out a tomorrow even against such a mortal wound.  That tree, said Job could sprout again.  Hope is the promise of a better day.  As long as there is hope, life is worth the living.  Spring is pregnant with hope and opens a new page in the book of every life.  

Love.  Love is a grace that causes life to dance.   During Spring, love is literally in the air.  The air is filled with spores. Nature’s hormones are coming out of every pore.  Life hold’s up its bowl, like Oliver, and asks for “more.”   Birds "strut their stuff" and are showing off their plumes, and plants (not to be out done)  their blooms.  Fruit trees explode with color, and young men behave in silly ways.

Spring reminds us of Jesus who called Himself the “resurrection and the life.”  Spring is not another gospel, but part of the same Gospel that “Ye must be born again.”  --id