Springtime is a Welcome Time
“Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.” Song of Solomon 2:10,1110My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; (Song of Solomon 2:10‑11).
Before our calendars actually display the springtime months, God’s creation already shows its nearness. For instance, flocks of birds appear overhead, migrating northward. Their songs and calls remind us that the miracle of spring is already in progress.
In ocean waters, fish of various kinds are affected by the coming of spring too. Groups of thousands find their way to distant shores to enter rivers and streams, where we can actually watch them swimming upstream to lay their eggs.
Even insects awaken to this change from winter and begin their important jobs for which the Creator has designed them. Some, like angleworms, centipedes and beetles, will drill into the soil, opening little holes so that the soil can receive fresh air and spring rains. Others fly among early flowers and blossoms in search of nectar, unaware that they are helping these beautiful bits of nature by pollinating them as they travel from one blossom to another.
Even your pet dog or cat will make you realize the nearness of spring as its heavy coat of fur the Creator gave it for winter warmth begins to thin out for a lighter summer coat.
At these times farmers begin what they have been looking forward to —getting out with their tractors, turning over and cultivating the soil for the planting of summer crops. In many homes mothers, dads and kids have fun planning and planting early vegetable gardens and flower beds. How good that freshly turned soil smells! In it God has supplied the food and water for newly planted seeds which will soon send up tender shoots into the sunshine of spring.
Trees and brush in parks and forests, looking bare and sad through winter’s chill, now come alive with new buds and leaves on their bare branches. Forest floors and many open areas display a delicate green as new grass appears. The first wild flowers appear, some of which poke their pretty heads through snow patches not yet melted away.
What an amazing time of year it is for those of us who closely watch the progress of spring. This miracle confirms the truth that none of this just happens to take place, but all is ordered by the Creator, as a delightful means of ushering in the springtime, welcomed by all. The promise in His Word, the Bible, is “While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:2222While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22).
Springtime presents a lovely picture of the change in the life of a boy or girl, man or woman, who has accepted the Lord Jesus as his or her Saviour and has thus “passed from death unto life,” as the Bible tells us in John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24). Have you experienced this most important “springtime” in your own heart?
ML 03/18/1990