Saturday, April 16, 2016

Spring Equals... Hope?

Spring is here!

 *Sits quietly for five minutes while basking in those glorious words*.... *Explodes*

Can everybody hear me?! Spring has arrived! Okay! I'm not just talking 40° weather... I'm talking 80's! (I'm almost tempted to think we skipped right over Spring and hopped into Summer.) So much has started blooming, and the grass is actually turning green. That's right folks. GREEN. (For a while I thought brown was going to be the only color I'd ever see again.) Spring is the season that thaws and refreshes your poor frozen mind.

But, lately I've been thinking.
What if Spring had another purpose? A purpose that went beyond merely what we see blooming and what we feel in the weather.
What if Springs purpose was to quietly awaken something within each spirit? Something that would refresh and revive you from the inside out?

The other day we were out enjoying this beautiful weather and I couldn't help but notice how many people seemed to be out this day. Windows were open to the gentle breeze that caressed the trees, urging them to open up and drink in the sunshine. People were scattered about the sidewalks calling greetings to their neighbors who were nearly forgotten during the long Winter months. An occasional motorcyclist rumbled down the street, no doubt thinking that this was long overdue.

Everyone wanted to be outside. No one wanted to be crammed inside their walls any longer. Everyone was ready to burst forth from their protective shells. Like the chicks that hatch every Spring. Like the buds that burst forth without fail.

Through all of this activity, I couldn't shake the feeling of something greater than warm weather and pretty flowers. I felt something. Something that reverberated through the air from that motorcyclist passing by. Something that ricocheted off of the buildings around those passer byes.

I couldn't put my finger on it.

Later on, I realized what it had been.

Hope.

I'd felt hope.

It was being thrown through the air like a water balloon ready to bust. This hope had burst open, spraying all who were in the way.

Everyone.

Maybe this wasn't coincidental.

Maybe our great and divine Creator created this season called Spring so that we would be hopeful of what He's done and what He will do. He's given us the hope of eternal life with Him, and because of that we can be reminded every Spring of where our hope lies.

In Him.

Maybe He awakens something in each soul every Spring so that someday they would decide, "I've searched long enough," and turn their face toward Him.

Maybe we didn't even know. And maybe it's been around us every year at the same time. Never failing.
 Maybe He calls us through those tiny leaves peeping through the soft soil ever faithfully. Or maybe He whispers through that gentle breeze that we thought had come to chase away the remaining snow. Maybe that whisper chases away that remaining guilt or sorrow in our hearts and says, "My grace is sufficient."

This is our Hope. That Christ's blood is a covering for every sin and shame. We hope, and we are never disappointed because this hope is a hope fulfilled.

Only through Christ.

We're all searching. But there's only One who can truly give us what we're searching for. He is the only one who can give us rest from our wanderings. Maybe He wanted us to get a glimpse of that rest through Spring. On those days when it feels like we don't have a care in the world.

He wanted us to hope for that rest which only He can provide. And maybe that hope would turn into a nagging longing to find that piece of the puzzle we couldn't find. The piece that makes the puzzle into a picture that could rock the very foundation of our worlds.

"Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." -Romans 5:5 NKJV









Spring has come. Do you feel the hope?

Makayla♥