A Love Letter To Spring

"And everything that's new has bravely surfaced, teaching us to breathe. And what was frozen through is newly purposed, turning all things green. So it is with You and how You make me new with every season's change. And so it will be as You are recreating me: Summer, Autumn, Winter
Spring."
-Nichole Nordeman "Every Season"

Does your heart feel all tingly and alive with the promise of Spring? Mine does.

I'm daydreaming of peonies and walking barefoot on warm concrete, taking bike rides and leisurely picnics. Reintroducing my winter-white legs to the generous sunshine - in lovely skirts and dresses. Welcoming brightness and color back into my life, after the richness and muted shades of fall and winter. Allowing a rebirth, a renewal of faith, of hope, of love in my spirit, in my heart - in my life.

What a gracious God we serve. I don't know about you, but I learn best by analogy, by anecdote. If you want a truth to burrow itself deep into my soul and latch on to both my heart and mind - tell me a story. Give me a picture of the grander scheme of things, something tangible around which my very finite brain can wrap.

And so God gave us seasons.

Life is a continual series of ups and downs, backs and forths, to's and fro's. Existing within the rhythms of a deeper music, we play through myriad songs - each beginning with a gentle intro, a building crescendo, a staggering climax, and a poignant fade to quiet. And then we hear the first strains of the next song, following right on the heels of the last. This is the symphony of life.

And like glorious music, God paints for us a picture of life with every change of season. What began a year ago as a promise of new life and beauty, smoothly rolled into hot days and sultry nights filled with sun-kissed skin and the taste of chilled watermelon. And then just when we despaired that we could not stand even another day of heat, that first cool wind blew through, bringing electricity, charging the air and painting the leaves crimson, gold, and burnt orange. Then came cold and chill and Christmas and snow. The world grew quiet as we meditated on the extravagant gift God sent to us in the form of a tiny baby, and we held our loved ones a little closer, and we snuggled down in for the long, dark, chilly months ahead.

And now here we are again. On the verge of an explosion of life, of color, of promise. We need Summer to teach us that life is a joyous parade, punctuated by bright fireworks and fresh-squeezed lemonade. We need Autumn to remind us to slow down, to see the beauty of change, to find grace and dignity in the end of things, the fragile nature of life. Winter forces us to hold each other close - to join forces, to find quiet, stillness. Peace.

And then Spring.

Spring is a burst of Creation, a love song from God to His beloved world, sung at the top of His lungs, echoed in the chirping of birds, the dancing of flowers in the breeze, carried on the fresh, new air. It's a song that sings of the return of blues, pinks, and greens - the return of life.

I believe God has worked it this way to remind us of the transient nature of life. Life is full of varied seasons - times of excitement and joy, followed by periods of oppression and heaviness, slipping into endings, into the shocking grief of symbolic and actual death - and finally settling into stillness, darkness, cold. But without fail, the Giver of Life returns with a shout and declares that the earth is good, that life is good - and He injects Spring into the deepest Winter of our hearts. To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

And you know what?

It's time for Spring.