Thinking About Spring

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes have a taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”
—Anne Bradstreet, writer and poet

I've been looking at seed catalogs to order my garden seeds, and I know I need to get it done soon, but I'm having a hard time getting motivated when my garden beds are just vague memories under the three and a half feet of snow in our back yard! I know Spring will arrive and I hope to have my seeds ready to go when it does get here. Even though gardening is a lot of work, I love fresh, organic veggies out of my garden. I always look forward to the first Robin's arrival and to the first buds that appear on the trees, sending us hope that rebirth is just around the corner.

Jesus offers us a chance to start over as well, and give us rebirth. We can ask him to forgive us and to help us out in life, and it's like we start over-it's like what happens in nature when the dead (and non-ending snow) goes away and we start to see signs of life around us everywhere we look.

As January comes to an end, I am thinking more and more about my favorite season and all the beautiful bulbs that break through the earth to give us amazing bursts of color. I think of how the grass will actually appear again and how the trees will come to life as well. Winter is good, though, because without the freezing temps in the winter, we wouldn't have those beautiful flowers in the spring! Just like in our lives, when we come through the dark times into a new season of life, and if Christ is part of that time, it gives us more to be thankful for when we make it through to the new season. We can display His beauty in our lives and be thankful that although the dark times where long and hard, and seemed like they would not end, He was there to bring us through. Many times when we look back on those times, we see how it made us stronger and how God was walking with us through the tough times never leaving us to trudge the winter of our lives alone.

As winter goes on outside, think of spring and renewal in your heart, and think of what type of seeds you are planting daily for those around you to see.

Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life. So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit. Galations 6:7-9 The Message

If we have faith in God's Son, we have believed what God has said. But if we don't believe what God has said about his Son, it is the same as calling God a liar. God has also said that he gave us eternal life and that this life comes to us from his Son. And so, if we have God's Son, we have this life. But if we don't have the Son, we don't have this life. 1 John 5:10-12