Spring

When you have been made to suffer being apart from something that you love for a long period of time, do you feel a sudden great joy when that thing is given back to you? That is how I feel after the long dreary winter has passed. Everything, during this time, is bleak, cold, and austere. Sometimes a thick blanket of snow will attempt to cover the barrenness of the landscape, and yet, more often than not we look out on a gray, cheerless world. Come March and April, however, there is a change in the air. We do not merely see naked branches, but little tiny buds all over the place, giving a reddish tint to the trees. Snowdrops appear, and are succeeded by the crocus. Then the hyacinth, daffodils, and tulips; or at least, that is how it goes in our gardens. Suddenly the earth is renewed. It is cleansed by Spring rains. The bleak atmosphere is washed away and replaced by warmth and cheer. Birds' songs echo through the trees, and they sing so sweetly, and so cheerfully, that it cannot help but banish melancholy and gloomy thoughts from the mind.

"There are some secret moving Springs in the Affections, which when they are set a going by some Object in view, or be it some Object, though not in view, yet rendered present to the Mind by the Power of Imagination, that Motion carries out the Soul by its Impetuosity to such violent eager embracings of the Object, that the Absence of it is insupportable." (Robinson Crusoe)

During this time of year I am apt to get intoxicated by the beauty of God's creation. I am not apt to worship the creation - nay, rather, it makes me bow in wonder of the God who made it! For if nature really is this beautiful - this sublime, then how much more powerful is the Hand that made it all, and how much more beautiful the Person who thought to make it.

These days make me burst with joy... after everything being dead for so long, it is finally become alive. I have drawn a line between Spring, and new birth in Christ. ..."And we were dead in the trespasses of our sins..." that is like winter. But when we are saved, and when we know Christ, everything blooms, and becomes alive.

This season should fill every mind with beautiful thoughts. How is it that buds on a tree can unfurl the splendor of a million leaves? Truly, this thought alone is amazing. Much less how a flower, so delicate, can push its way up through the soil, and nurtured by the sun, bloom and add so much color and loveliness to the world.

Let us not forget our blessings, and let us not forget to be grateful to Him who makes winter end, and gives us this gift of Spring.

(By the way, I've purposely abstained from using too much - or even not at all- words such as sublime, ecstasy, glorious etc, so as not to overwhelm my readers by my enthusiasm on this subject. :P)