“Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.”
Song of {s 22221}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. Have you noticed flocks of birds 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. Schools of thousands find their way to distant shores to enter rivers and streams. You may 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 where the soil can receive fresh air and spring rains. Others fly among early flowers and blossoms in search of nectar, unaware that they are part of God’s design of pollination as they travel from one blossom to another.
Even your dog or cat will make you realize the nearness of spring. Have you noticed your pet’s heavy winter coat of fur is thinning out for a lighter summer coat?
Activity on farms is picking up. Farmers are out on their tractors, turning over and cultivating the soil for spring planting. In many homes, families have fun planning and planting early vegetable gardens and flower beds. How good that freshly turned soil smells! God has supplied food and water in the soil for newly planted seeds. They will soon send up tender shoots into the sunshine of spring.
Trees and bushes 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 wildflowers 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 this: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime 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 represents 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 “passed from death unto life” (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-04/11/2004