WHEN WILL SPRING BE SPRUNG?

I am sitting here by the fire with the dogs.  Lucy has her head resting on Amos' shoulder and they are cuddled up like two bugs in a rug.  Its freezing cold outside and they are trying to stay warm.  It's a comfortable 68 degrees inside but to look outside you would never know it.  It's a NACITS (not a cloud in the sky) kind of day.  The scenery is beautiful.  The birds are feeding at the bird feeder and every once in a while a squirrel will try and sneak up, climb the pole and snitch a few seeds.  That is until Tamie gets her BB gun and plunks one of the critters sending them scurrying up the hill.

It's a beautiful setting and almost Norman Rockwell-ish but I have a beef with the weather department.  Last week they said it will be 50 on Saturday.  Now they say its going to be like this through the rest of February.  I say "Enough is Enough!"  Last winter endured almost forever.  It was so cold and snowy but yet it did not kill enough of the fleas and ticks and other varmit bugs for my suiting!  This year started off warmer and less snowy than last year but it was just a trick to dull our senses into boredom then "BOOM!" The end of January let us have it good!

I for one have had enough.  I like the winter until about January 1st then its time for spring.  I don't often complain but seriously? When will spring come?  There is a counter that you can download to find out.  Here is the link:   http://days.to/spring/2015  According to the counter there are 28 days until Spring!  One month...sigh...

There are signs though that might hint that spring might show its face a little earlier.  The trees today even though it is cold are showing some signs of life.  There is red in the upper branches...a sign.  Watching the news yesterday about a story in Akron actually showed a robin!  Yes, a robin!  Either it is a demented robin that got stuck here or else...could it be...another sign?  The cardinals are beginning to turn more red.  Vibrant red.  And the little yellow finches are starting to molt as well.

But they are just signs...signs of a better, warmer, sunnier day ahead.  Just like there are signs all around us that point us to Christ.  I am currently reading "Apologetics Beyond Reason: Why Seeing Really is Believing" by James Sire, author of "The Universe Next Door".  Probably not a book many would just pick up and read.  But in his text he makes this statement:  "There is nothing in the universe that does not finally point to the existence of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." (p.24)  He quotes Blaise Pascal on the same page: "What can be seen on earth indicates neither a total absence, nor the manifest presence of divinity, but the presence of a hidden God.  Everything bears this stamp."

He continues the thought, "Everything shows that there is a transcendence that surely exists but is hidden...as Pascal would say, that is often hidden but sometimes blazes like fire".  I like the phrase "...hidden but sometimes blazes like fire."  Winter lays out in the open the dead in nature.  Spring reveals the hidden life under the snows.  Just as there is a death, there will be a resurrection.  Can it not be any more simplistic than that?

Look around you.  While all is white covered with snow, it is not dead, but sleeping.  There are signs all around telling you that life is but a breath away.  Spring is just around the corner...the signs are evidence that life is coming!

Let me ask you a personal question.  Are you living?  Really living?  What signs are there in your life that you are living?  Sounds like a dumb question doesn't it?  But, recently, I did a funeral where although death was all around, there were signs of life.  Death is but for a moment...like winter.  But for those who trust Christ, there will be an eternal Spring ahead for them.  What signs are there in YOUR life that you have an eternal spring ahead?  You can't rely just upon being a good guy or a great lady, or the works you do here.

C.T. Studd wrote: "Only one life t'will soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last".  Look around at your life.  Are you baring the signs of life eternal or the signs of death and destruction? The signs are there.  They are all around.  Soon Spring will be sprung!  28 days!  Spring brings also the celebration of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  This Spring why not celebrate with a new commitment to the eternal Spring, life everlasting, by trusting in Him?

When will Spring be Sprung in YOUR life?

Pray for each other and stay warm.  Pastor Chuck