Spring, Lovely Spring

Image via WikipediaThis is a post I wrote some years ago when I first started blogging. Having been away from my computer for a while, too long a while, I decided to search some old posts to find something that would get my creative juices flowing. And sure enough, I came across this post, perfect for the beginning of spring. I have repurposed it a little to make it more relevant.
                                                                                 
Spring is here! Isn't it wonderful the way God redecorates the landscape so there is always something new to grab our senses and delight our minds? I love the changing of the seasons. Maybe it's because I was born and raised in a tropical climate where there are only two seasons: the dry season and the rainy season. It was only when I migrated to the United States that I experienced the four seasons. I remember the first time I saw snow, I was like a kid again, a grown woman making snowballs and throwing at my friends. Then fall came and filled me with awe, and still does.

There is beauty and purpose in every season. I don't mind the short, gray days and the naked boughs of winter because I know they don't last. The sun will shine again, tender green leaves will appear on those boughs and flowers will spring out of the ground. Perpetual summer or winter could not sustain life. We need heat and cold, moisture and drought in order to sustain life on this planet.

The changing of the seasons reminds me that:

1. God is faithful. He is always with us, whether we think of Him or not. Like a good parent, He is preparing our food, our comfort and doing all the extra little things to give us pleasure. Acts 14: 17 says, "... and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."


2. God is a God of order. Even though environmentalists speak of climate change, weather systems throughout the world remain well-defined. Spring comes faithfully after winter, summer follows spring and so on. We experience heat in summer and cold in winter. Hot climates remain hot and cold climes remain cold. Spring is always the season of birth and new beginnings, winter the season of death and decay.


3. God speaks to us through the seasons. Oswald Chambers says, "When you have thoughts and ideas that are worthy of credit to God, learn to compare and associate them with ... the changing of the seasons." (My Utmost For His Highest). I couldn't agree more. The seasons of the earth reflect the seasons of our lives. Just as God rearranges the environment to suit His purpose, in the same way He arranges our lives into seasons so we can grow and develop into the spiritually healthy and happy beings He created us to be. Just trust Him, regardless of the season. 

------------------------------------------------

Speaking of the seasons of our lives, I would like to introduce you to my book Women For All Seasons, which uses stories of women of the Bible to show how God works in and through us in every season of our life. Check it out here.







     

Related articles

• The Utmost for His Highest...Oswald Chambers (nwcampusgirls.wordpress.com)

How Your Words Contribute To An Angry Environment?

We have all seen news reports on television of people fighting in the streets, throwing rocks or hand grenades, aiming machine guns at each other. We may look at them and think that those displays of anger only happen in foreign lands. We may even think they are justified, given the conditions that exist in those places. We never place ourselves on the same footing with "those people." But if we examine our lives a little more closely, we would realize that we too sometimes throw rocks, hand grenades and even machine guns at our loved ones and the people we come into contact with on a daily basis.

Take this scenario: Jane comes in to work one October morning, spots her co-worker Jill wearing a pair of white pants. Jane turns to Mary, another co-worker, and says loud enough for everyone to hear, "I have learned never to wear white pants after Labor Day." Is that a rock or a hand grenade? Whoever said, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never hurt me," didn't know what they were talking about.

But throwing hurtful words are not the only forms of anger that we may come across in our environment. There is the body language type of anger. The frigid atmosphere that pervades at the dinner table because Dad doesn't want to be disturbed while he's reading the newspaper. Or, the person who keeps her back turned to you while you are speaking to her. Or the door-slamming, pot-banging, foot-stomping behavior that goes on.

“Words can break someone into a million pieces, but they can also put them back together. I hope you use yours for good, because the only words you'll regret more than the ones left unsaid are the ones you use to intentionally hurt someone.” - Taylor Swift. Do you want your words to bless others or curse them? Lift them up, or tear them down?

Read what James says about the way we use our words: "Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things . Behold , how great a matter a little fire kindleth ! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed , and hath been tamed of mankind : 8 But the tongue can no man tame ; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be" (v 5 - 9).