Another Spring… – Sunday, March 22, 1959
Since so constantly it has recurred, for so many centuries, we should not, perhaps, be overly awed by its coming once again—but Spring never ceases to be an unbelievable miracle and an unforgettable memory.
If the Creator were not still creating (or if the law of chance were ever to take over), we should not know if there should ever be another Spring. But blessedly the Creator still keeps creation in its course, and blessedly we come again to this hopeful, renewing, restoring season. Spring is, in a sense, the substance of things hoped for….”1
It is the reality, the fulfillment of faith. It is a symbol and assurance of light and life, of hope and happiness; and a symbol and assurance that we ourselves shall come forth to a newness of life. All this Spring is—and much more. It is a time for leaving behind the ruts of winter, the ruts that have held us in narrow ways: the ruts of cramped thinking, the ruts that keep our lives too narrowly confined.
Spring invites us to lift ourselves out of the winter-worn ruts. It is also a reminder of the principle of repentance, of the clearing away of the litter left by winter winds, of the washing away of smudge on walls and windows—the smudge that sometimes clouds our vision.
There is nothing in life quite like the feeling of cleanness: of clean clothes, clean houses, clean hands., clean thoughts, clean hearts—of the sense of cleanliness that comes with clearing out thoughts unworthy of us, with putting out prejudice and pettiness, and repenting of the past. There is much of scripture on the quality of cleanliness, “For this ye know, that no … unclean person . . . hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.”2
Spring invites us to wash away what should be washed away and to take a fresh, clean look at ourselves and our surroundings. Somehow, we think of Spring when we read the words in Genesis, as God looked out on the evening of the sixth day and saw everything that He had made, and “behold, it was very good.”3
It was very good; it is very good—as good as men will let it be. And with the cleanness that can come with Spring, with work and willingness of spirit, with cleanness of thought and intent, with humility of heart, we can have the faith, the hope, the sweet and everlasting assurance of life, and of the limitless future, of which the blessed Spring is beautifully both the symbol and the assurance. *
1 Hebrews 11:1
2 Ephesians 5.5
3 Genesis 1:31
* Revised
March 22, 1959
Broadcast Number 1,544