“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” Habakkuk 3:17-18
Evidence of spring is all around! It’s official, too, as the first day of spring was last week. The days are getting longer, the weather warmer, and the grass greener. The northern hemisphere of our planet is slowly wakening, changing from death to life again. It’s all about our relationship with the sun. As we enter again into the season of spring, our axis titling closer to the sun for the next three months, what a difference it makes to the world around us.
I just returned from Florida where just five months ago Hurricane Michael devastated my hometown. It still looks like a haunted forest from a scary fairy tale. Thousands and thousands of trees have been totally uprooted. Others snapped off mid-trunk leaving only tall stumps. The few that still stand are so traumatized they show only little signs of budding on the few branches that were able to hang on and survive the storm. It doesn’t look much like spring there. But we’re hopeful!
Spring makes me think of Easter. Although we are still four weeks away from my favorite holiday, spring and Easter are both evidence that God makes all things new. The little yellow chicks, the colored eggs, the bunnies and lambs are all sweet reminders of new life.
The purity and innocence of the little lamb is my favorite. Perhaps because it is so symbolic of Jesus, the Lamb of God. He lived a pure, sinless life. He was innocent of all accusations hurled at him and yet, as part of God’s great plan and because of His great love, the spotless Lamb died a horrible, cruel death.
His death is what transforms our hearts. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but have been given new life through Christ, our sacrificial Lamb. He died in our place paying the punishment for our sins.
Does your life feel like it’s been ravaged by a hurricane? Do you feel like you’re living in a scene out of a fairy tale where you are lost in the haunted forest, not knowing which way to turn? Jesus came to give you new life, too! He is making all things new, including transforming your heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, from death to life.
Every trip around the sun brings us closer and closer to the day when all the sad and horrible things of this broken world will come untrue when the Lamb of God returns in victory and with finality will make ALL THINGS new! In the meantime, the closer we draw to the Son of God the more He can fill us with the light of life and transform us into His image.
God can turn your disaster into His masterpiece. From the stump of Jesse a shoot will spring up! Not only can God make all things new He brings life from death. He conquered death when He rose again.
There in the back of my mom’s yard was a reminder of this promise. Growing from the stump of a victim of the hurricane was a beautiful green shoot! Life from death. Like the little lambs, a sign of spring, a sign of God’s promise.
What God is doing in that devastated place is the same thing He does in our hearts. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed, day by day. With every rotation of the earth on its axis, every revolution around the sun, God, through Christ is perpetually renewing our spirits until that day we are made complete and our faith is made sight.
Until then, as my brother in law said, every day is Easter when you have Christ! Happy Spring!
His servant and yours,
Paula