My boys will tell you that I am the eternal optimist. For the past year I have been getting on my tiptoes and looking for the light at the end of the Pandemic Tunnel. Full disclosure. I have been discouraged by how (insert your approved descriptive word here) long this tunnel has become. Just when I start feeling hopeful TCLNN (The Chicken Little News Network) informs me the sky is falling and likely very soon.
I allowed myself to wonder if the world will ever be the same. I needed a postcard from God.
Today I walked outside and received that needed special delivery from my Heavenly Father. Just a month ago record cold paralyzed our state and it was feared that many plants could not survive. But on this sunny morning life had begun to renew. Green buds sprouted in defiance of winters brutal assault. I stopped in my tracks and stared at life springing out of barrenness. I thought of the words of philosopher Bernard Williams.
“The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.”
I love that. Is there anything more hopeful than watching the beauty of budding leaves and blooming flowers turning a brown, bleak winter into a wondrous palette of invigorating colors? Every spring is a reminder that God will bring beauty from darkness and life from death.
For twelve months television screens have posted running tallies showing deaths from the Covid virus. We know that cancer and other diseases take millions more from us each year. But like that bit of green emerging from a lifeless branch we have a hope this spring.
Jesus has conquered death.
Martin Luther poetically wrote this. “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”
Followers of Jesus have a hope that our lives are eternal and valuable in Him. We have a hope that death is not final.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. (1 Corinthians 15:54-58, NLT)
Nothing we do for the Lord is ever useless. Nothing! And even as we face the reality of a dangerous world we know we have the twin promise of victory over sin and death through Jesus. So as spring begins I choose to marvel at the renewing of life and the hope that holds for all of us. Paul wrote about this miracle.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
(2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)
We have become new creations now and forever in Jesus. Doesn’t that hope feel especially good this spring?
RedOlive
Through a recent near death experience… my sweet love of my life, had a massive heart attack while on our way out to the coast. God had performed many miracles that day that put us in the right place to save his life… multiple times. First I was driving, 2nd he had taken aspirin while on our drive over the mountain as we headed west, (he complained of back pain)… 3rd: when his heart suddenly stopped and he stopped breathing, we were in a small town that had a fire department and paramedics and cell service. 4th: The nurses in the helicopter ride to the hospital saved him multiple times on the way to the hospital. By God’s Grace, where I stopped the car for help, was literally around the corner from the paramedics. God has bigger plans for my sweet Angel and last week was not yet his time to leave. This week, we have been so grateful he is doing very well… and we have spent times outside working on our property, for minutes at a time. Today was an exceptional Spring day, birds, trees, flowers and watching the wild turkeys as they traipse through our tall weeds on our property. Life is good and enjoying the beauty of Spring makes it that much better. Praise God for our miracle and bless you for the great story of Spring.
Dave Burchett
Wonderful story of God’s protection and love. Thanks for sharing.
AUNDRIA WOOLARD
Dave, I Cor. 15:54 is one of the two passages that got me through the hardest experience I have faced thus far.
It is permanently etched on my body in the form of a tattoo, and on my soul as light in a very difficult dark time. The second passage is I Peter 1:3-9, “…obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”