Spring reminds us God gives life abundantly

By JRhoades

This year, my wife and I had the privilege of experiencing spring twice. Let me explain: Toward the end of April, we went to our son’s wedding in North Carolina.

For them, it was late spring/ early summer. Fresh local picked strawberries were in full swing, and their field corn was six to eight inches tall. The trees were lavished in full green, whereas the trees we left back in Ohio were anything but.

As we made our return to Ohio some two weeks later, spring was in full swing all over again. Now tell me, what could be better than enjoying strawberry season twice in one year?

Then, upon a recent bike ride on the Rails to Trials in Millersburg as my wife pedaled on, just taking it all in, she spontaneously commented, ”Oh, it’s so nice to have everything so green and alive again.”

I suppose that’s spring in a nut shell: “everything so green and alive again.”

Throughout the countryside, we see many a farmer, for instance, working their fields, making ready for planting corn, soybeans or some other crop in the sleeping fallow soil. And there are those of us who like to farm on a much smaller scale; we call it gardening.

Gardening can be thought of the art of killing weeds and bugs to grow flowers and crops so the local wildlife and birds can eat.

Or, like what a friend of ours with a not-so-green of a thumb said on a recent visit: “I would usually plant my plants and they would usually just pass away.” — June Merchant.

Of course not everyone chooses to believe this, that the whole existence of man came from and relies on a loving God Who chose to create us: “He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.” Acts 17:25.

And moreover, He didn’t just create man, but to be more specific, unlike any other creature, He chose to create mankind in His own image: “God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’” Genesis 1:26.

But I have not come to make ripples with the nonbeliever, I am only here today to promote a living God who loves you and is so familiar with each of us that He even knows the number of hairs on your head.

“Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Luke 12:7.

I am here only to promote a loving God Whose desire is for us to be with him. “The Lord... is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9.

It is my hope to remind you of an eternal God who not only gave us life, but He is a God Whose love endures forever.

“The LORD’S loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning.” Lamentations 3:22-23.

It would seem just as the world about us renews itself every spring, God’s loving kindness and His compassions are renewed as well every morning.

That my friend, should give us all something positive to think on and be thankful for tomorrow morning as the squawking rooster crows our groggy eyes out of bed.

It is the same quiet voice of the One who spoke to the despondent prophet Elijah in today’s scripture reading.

Our attention may be elsewhere when God hands us a love note. Worried or distracted, we may glance at the words without comprehension. Yet God persists. As the quoted scripture reminds us, we are always on God’s mind.

I framed Jesse’s picture and hung it by my desk. Its huge eyes and funny beak are a reminder to me that God’s eyes are on us. Firmly in God’s gaze, we can feel comforted and reassured. Today’s prayer: Dear Lord, help us not to be distracted from your voice but always to be attentive to your Spirit. Amen.

— Debra Celovsky, California

But joking aside, spring, indeed, is the time when everything seems to awaken from the dead, thereby growing and blossoming into life abundantly. Crocuses, daffodils, tulips and yes, even dandelions, all spring forth in vibrant colors each announcing that new life and spring has made its way once again.

Even as I write this, a male robin is outside my screen door with his unceasing chirp-CHIRPChirp, sending a romantic message to all the neighborhood girl robins informing them of what a great husband and father he would be.

As my wife did so aptly say; “Everything is so green and alive again!” And so, even as spring reminds us of renewed life, today I wish to remind us that it is the Lord our God who is the source of all life, particularly ours.

“The LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

Genesis 2:7.

So, as you watch the spring unfold this year with its vibrant fresh new growth, new flowers, and new life, think on this: it is our eternal loving God who gave us this spring. And it is this same loving God who gives us life in His image and He gives it abundantly.

Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:9,10.