Come Spring
“For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land” (Song of Solomon 2:11, 12).
There is something so refreshing, invigorating and inspiring about spring! I love the time of year when spring flowers bloom again; the grass becomes green again and nature awakens some important messages in our hearts. In the two verses above, the voice of the lover speaks to the beloved of a time when they will be in reunion with one another. This time is likened to the happy time of spring, full of flowers, birds singing and specifically the sweet melancholy sound of the dove celebrating to its mate that winter has passed and it’s the time of nesting. Allow me to take just a little of your time to remind you of those messages.
1. We are reminded that winter has stimulated the new growth.
The foliage was only gone temporarily. Without the hard cold of winter, the germs of impurity would still be lingering. There is a cleansing and life-giving quality that comes from the dead of winter. John Bunyan said, “It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit, because there is no winter there.”
Winter becomes much more bearable when we consider spring is coming!
“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11).
2. We are reminded of our Lord’s resurrection.
I recall those wonderful Easter mornings when the little girls were dressed in their frilly clothes with pretty little hats and patent leather shoes with matching purses. I remember so well dressing in my itchy new clothes with a neck tie and one Easter, a hat like my Dad’s. Much more important to me however, was the glorious part of the good news that on the original Easter, our Lord Jesus Christ arose from the grave.
It was the season of the Passover, spring of the year, in which our Lord suffered and bled upon the cruel cross. He was buried, but death could not hold Him; He arose from the cold grip of winter’s death. He had paid the full price for our redemption and now rose from the dead to become our victor and conqueror.
Even as the Easter lily opens its bloom in the spring, our Lord has become for us the Lily of the Valleys as well as the Rose of Sharon. “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys” (Song of Solomon 2:1).
3. We are reminded of our own resurrection.
“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25, 26).
My paternal grandmother, Willie Florence Pope and not long afterwards my maternal grandmother, Mary Satterfield Edwards both died in the winter season. My Dad made a great and appropriate illustration that was a memorable way to leave everyone with a smile in their heart. He said, “As you leave these burial grounds you will notice the trees are bare, the leaves have long since fallen. You’ll notice the ground is brown, and you’ll also notice the obvious absence of flowers. But as you travel home, remember that soon, in just a couple of months these trees will leave again and these fields shall be green again, and flowers will bloom again. So also, we shall see our little Mama again….come spring.” When I spoke at Dad’s funeral, I made the same application. Recently, at the funeral of my Aunt Nina, my cousin Roy made the same application, recalling his Uncle’s words over the coffin of our grandmother. My aunt was the last of Daddy’s siblings, another generation has passed, but the truth lives on - come spring we’ll all be together again.
As Texans we love to travel through the country on an early spring day and see the pastures of bluebonnets looking like the bluest lakes you have ever seen. When God weaves the bluebonnet, Indian paintbrush, and blue bell together growing in the wild, it is symmetry, harmony, poetry in nature and insurmountable beauty. Why do we take pilgrimages to see the wildflowers? Why do we have the azalea trails, and rose garden tours? I submit to you there is an answer in these blooms of spring that inadvertently reminds one and all there is life beyond life. Life after death! Spring says to the dead, live again!
Why do we place lovely bouquets upon the caskets of our loved ones? Because come spring, they, too, will be given a new body and residency in the New Jerusalem. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven” (II Corinthians 5:1,2).
“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (I Corinthians 15:53).
Algernon Charles Swinburne wrote:
For winter’s rains and ruins are over,
And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.
We say with John, the Beloved, “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20). “My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land” (Song of Solomon 2:10-12).
Welcome spring! And thanks for the reminder.
- Pastor Pope -