Seeing Spring – Sunday, April 21, 1985
In springtime, the world is renewed. The crocuses put forth their shoots in search of the sun” the grasses that were gray beneath the snow turn green again: the snow itself which only yesterday was ice-packed in the mountains, becomes a life-giving river to valley farms being plowed in preparation for the season’s planting.
And, for those who believe, the miracle of spring’s regeneration is also a witness of God. In spring, death surrenders to life; and all the resurrections of the season reveal a world more abundant, more hopeful, more certain than we may have remembered.
But the evidence of God’s love and plan are not only apparent in the season but also in each of us. We are just witnesses to the truth of spring, but our lives are renewing testimony of the God who gave them.
Isn’t it a paradox, then, that many of those same people whose lives testify of God do themselves deny Him? Many people look at spring and do not see a divine plan, but the mere working of change, the random association of some natural selection.
How strange that the handiwork should deny the hand, that the created should deny the creator. How incredible that men should look on spring and not see in it the miracle of God’s creation and the hope of His salvation.
But, when God made us to be His children, He also made us to be free. Free to choose.
And so it is that we may choose to see, to believe, to hope…or to be blind, to ignore, to doubt.
Spring is as beautiful for the unbeliever as the believer. The sun is as warm, the days as bright. But, for those who see in spring the power of resurrection and salvation, that same sun is even more welcome. Because, for the believer, the hope of spring shines in every moment, is present in every opening flower and greening field. We see Christ all around us and the power of God’s love in every movement. We see a world in which all the creatures are creations of our God; and, we know this season, this spring, is a testimony of Him.
April 21, 1985
Broadcast Number 2,905