Today’s devotional: celebrating the new life of spring
What is it about spring that lifts the human spirit?
Growing up in southern California, I didn’t really understand the joy of spring until I moved to the Midwest. Here in Michigan, springtime isn’t just a few months of pleasant weather before the sweltering heat of summer… it’s a celebration after the long reign of winter. I didn’t truly appreciate the vibrancy of spring until I’d lived through a bleak, snowy Midwest winter.
In this devotional, Wonder of Creation finds a Biblical lesson in the new life of spring:
This time of the year I’m reminded of the psalms that speak of nature’s bounty. And it’s hard to find a more exuberant expression of praise for God’s abundance than the one penned by the Hebrew psalmist David:
“You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its ridges abundantly, you settle its furrows; you make it soft with showers, you bless its growth. You crown the year with your goodness, and your paths drip with abundance. They drop on the pastures of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered with grain; they shout for joy, they also sing” (Psalm 65:9-13 NKJV).
….The amazing fruitfulness of the earth that provides both for us and for the creatures of the wilderness is a gift from a righteous, gracious, merciful, and loving Creator. As its stewards then, mankind has a divine mandate to preserve its capacity to be fruitful—which involves our being able to determine when human activity begins to go beyond our taking of the fruit of the land and we start destroying its fruitfulness.
Read the full devotional at Wonder of Creation.
What does spring look like where you live? Can you relate to this sense of spiritual joy—and responsibility—that comes with the abundant life of spring?
AAAH YES – the long awaited Spring (for us that endure a full Winter of ice, snow and cold). The timing of Spring or its near arrival with Easter adds to its significant joy. New life in the meadow and flower beds and new life in the risen Lord. How can one experience the joy of Spring and not see the Creator in all of that.
Too often though, we hang onto the message of Spring and the message of Easter and coast through the rest of the church year, now waiting for Christmas. The greatest message of Easter, Spring and newness is that of the impending Second Coming of Jesus the Christ. To fully apply the lessons of Easter we now are in an excited state of readiness and anticipation of the GREATEST EVENT OF ALL – Come Lord Jesus, Come.
The beauty and joy of Spring is not only experienced by the eye but in the aroma of cherry blossoms and hyacinths. Their colors and fragrances as well as their beauty is only surpassed by the realization that the barreness of the long hard winter has blossomed into fruitfullness of new life. Serving only as a reminder of the hope of Christ’s return. It has always been a reminder that my life like that of the blossoming seeds may have been put on hold during the long Winter’s rest but the anticipation of new growth serves to inspire perseverance and determination to press through. Stop, Look and Listen to the joy!