Most people can agree that winter is a difficult season. Some people even move south for the winter to avoid the hardships completely. Combining cold, snow and little sunshine with this year’s global pandemic creates a season that is most often dreaded.
By the time spring comes, many people, especially Midwesterners, are jumping for joy. When the temperature reaches above 50 degrees, it seems that is all that we can talk about. While some would see spring as a nuisance or an unfortunate means to get to summer, I personally believe that spring is the best season.
I admit, spring is not always the prettiest of seasons right away. Looking outside now, I see brown grass littered with dead leaves and bare trees. Without the snow covering it, it looks bland. Once rain is added to that mixture, everything looks dead, sad and wet. But while things look dreary now, there is hope for warmer weather and new beauty to be born. As the months of spring progress, the beauty of spring will slowly be revealed.
There are few greater joys in my life than seeing green grass, hearing birds chirp and feeling the warmth of sunshine on my skin. It is a slow birthing process, but it is one that we all get to be a part of and experience. Spring on the University of Northwestern–St. Paul’s campus is especially beautiful. We watch as all the flowers and trees on campus begin to bud. We walk to class and wait in anticipation for everything to start blooming.
Spring is all about perspective. The popular saying goes, “April showers bring May flowers.” Are allergies a curse that comes with spring? Or are the flowers blooming and life returning, and your body is just responding? Is that mud puddle a dirty annoyance that comes with spring? Or is it a puddle of joy that children love to jump in, reminding you there is hope and that warmer weather is on the way?
Spring is a metaphor of a life with Christ. We start out in the winter. Everything is dead and bleak. But Jesus comes, and He defeats death. His death is the ultimate death, the ultimate winter. Then spring comes. Jesus rises from the dead, which is unironically celebrated at Easter, a spring holiday. He gives life to everyone who follows Him. Our lives are dark and dead without Him, but with Jesus, there is hope. He brings us from death to life. From winter to spring.
It may be a slow process, and we may slip back, just like an April snowstorm, but ultimately Jesus takes each area of our life, and works to bring it to life. At the end, Jesus gets us to summer, where this is no more winter or death. Spring can be used as a beautiful depiction of the gospel.
Ultimately, spring is hope. Spring is joy. Spring brings life, and that life is beautiful. As Lady Bird Johnson once said, “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”
