The Promise of Spring

 

It always happens this time of year. I don’t like hot weather, and I love Fall and the coziness of winter. But by March, I’m ready for some brightness and a little warmth. I even recently bought myself a small bouquet of flowers at the grocery store in order to bring a little touch of Spring into my house!

Where I live, we’ve had an especially cold winter compared to usual, so I think I’m even more anxious for spring to arrive than I usually am. But the past few days and the upcoming forecast are an indication that the seasons are colliding. We have had nearly every weather phenomenon occurring, nearly simultaneously, every single day. Spring is trying to come, but winter is fighting to stay. It makes me wish for the legendary perfection of Camelot, where it supposedly never rained until after sundown!

The collision of the seasons reminds me of the ups and downs and back and forth of human relationships. We are temporarily stuck in the imperfection of life on earth in a fallen world, where each of us fights for control and doesn’t always play nice with others. Just like the changing seasons, we sometimes experience overlapping emotions and disagreements leading to conflict and confrontations. And just like my longing for spring, I sometimes long for what the Garden of Eden must have been like in its perfect, harmonious state.

But I have Eden to look forward to again in the future, because this world is not my permanent home! And even though this earthly journey sometimes can seem long and extra cold like this winter, I can choose to look for joy and count my blessings and not dwell on the negatives that sometimes occur. The promise of spring is new life, and I can count on spring to show up eventually because it always does. And this promise of new life isn’t just for this world, but for the next as well.