Because He Lives

It’s Spring again- the time of new beginnings, of starting, of growing, of changing.

The winter has been long and dark, and the sunshine feels glorious and warm. I can’t get enough of it. There are birds singing, and the yaks in the pasture on the other side of the barn that sits near our little house have a tiny new baby, the cutest thing ever. The snow that has long buried the landscape is melting away, revealing beneath it the good earth again, and a lot of activity.

Little seeds, laying under the cold blanket of snow are bursting forth into new life, and we are surrounded by abundant evidence that He lives.

It is a happy time for me, and I can’t help but sing with those birds, and wait for the barefoot days of summer to unfold when I can abandon shoes for a while and wear light, summery skirts and sandals instead, and dig in my garden and watch the flowers grow in the meadows.

Yet, when I go out to wander a little each day, under all that snow there were the old leaves of autumn, the dead grass from last season, and sticks and stones that have collected over the months of cold and wind. There’s work to do if we want to see the real beauty of the grass waiting to burst out under there.

Spring time is the time to clear all that rubbish off, to get out the rake, and pull it all away, and let the newness of life spring forth in all it’s beauty, uncluttered by the past, and unhindered by obstacles that were thrown in its way during the winter. And to think, that underneath all that is the promise of another season, another harvest, of blessings from the Giver of all Life. Without Him, there’d be no Springtime, no leaves or old grass to rake, no promise of barefoot days or even a bird to sing cheerful songs.

Yes, He lives.

And… because He lives, we can face tomorrow, we can face our future, the unknown of yet another season of life, we can embrace our joys and our sorrows, and face them with hope, and with trust,  and with confidence that He who recreates newness each spring will recreate it in our hearts as well. Those little seeds He’s been planting in our lives, seeds often planted in difficulty, in trial, in the darkness of pain and affliction and heart ache, will spring forth into beautiful flowers of love, of patience, of joy, and humility.

Unlike the Seasons, which come and go in their time, we sometimes choose the season of our hearts, clinging to winter with all its bitter cold and darkness as if our life depended on living in the shadows. We long for the joy and beauty of Summer time, but disdain the change of Spring.

We may find that in the dark, long winter, we’ve lost our freshness, our first love for Him, and we need a good Spring Cleaning, but fear the pain that we know that rake might bring, or of what might be revealed of who we really are,  if it pulls back those old, dead leaves of the past that we’ve been holding close, causes us to fight for “our rights”, and hold on to the past disappointments and failures as if they are treasures worth dying for. But all we’ve got is old, dead leaves, when we could have beautiful, bright new grass and the best of flowers.

We can’t get to Summer without Spring. As much as He wants to, the sacrifice, the death and even the resurrection of our LORD cannot bring new seasons to our life if we don’t embrace the Spring Time of change and let Him renew us.

If we were to try to do it all ourselves, we’d get nowhere, for just as the garden can’t turn itself or get ready for new little plants to grow, or just as the lawn cannot rake itself clean of all those dead leaves, we can’t truly get rid of all the old winter-time baggage on our own.

But that is why He lives.

He wants to recreate that life that He has,  in you. Right now. Get rid of all the old things of the past, and uncover the treasures of the future.

Let Him get out that rake, stop holding on to whatever it is that seems to painful to let go- those grudges, those disappointed hopes, those broken dreams and wounded feelings and remember that they’re really just dead things that will only hinder us in the end..Embrace His Life, and the beauty of True Spring will break forth in your heart.

But there is an even more beautiful work that is done.

The old, dry, dead leaves from the past  season, once raked up can be gathered together, and with proper care and treatment become nourishing food for the growth of the new plants. A good compost can do wonders for a garden, and can give valuable nutrients to any plant, causing it to grow bigger, and better and more beautiful than it would otherwise.

Our Savior does just such a thing with those old leaves of our past. He turns what seems to be the worst into something beautiful, something that strengthens and encourages the New Life that He has created in our hearts. Those very things that were hindering us from growing, that hurt us and kept us feeling wintery, He turns into one of the biggest blessings in our lives.

Those heartaches, those sorrows, those broken dreams- all of those things we could not understand when they faded and fell lifeless onto the ground, when we let Him have them all, He turned into something good. Satan meant it for evil,  but God knew better.

“Where man sees but withered leaves, God sees sweet flowers growing.”  ~Albert Laighton

Because He lives.

Photo By Chantel Harding of Katie B enjoying a Montana Daisy Field and a beautiful Spring Day