Summer and Winter and Springtime and Harvest

Spring. The very word elicits feelings of hope and newness. Spring means heat. It means grass and bare feet. Robins and worms. Buds and blossoms. Caterpillars and flies and sunlight and mud and open water and T-Shirts and laughter and ticks and sunburns and scratches and dandelions and dirty knees and fetch and baseball and freedom and the promise of Summer. Spring smells good.

Winter has its own charms - snowflakes and Christmas(!) and ice skating and hot cocoa and fireplaces and blankets.... It has its own purposes in the annual seasons. Important ones. Including, probably around the beginning of February, reminding us how nice Summer is. Winter is cold; Summer isn't. Winter keeps you shut inside; Summer calls you out. Winter doesn't have mosquitos; Summer's full of them. Winter would never give you heatstroke; Summer sometimes does. Pleasant, huh?

YES! It has its downsides, granted. I'll probably be complaining in a month. Which is one nice thing about seasons. If you get tired of one, it won't be too long until the next one. But for now...

Spring is amazing. There's something new every day. First it was the snow melting. Then the driveway becoming a mudhole. Then the Canada geese honking overhead on their way home. Then a little hole forming in the ice on the lake's edge. A few of the birds beginning their summer choruses again. Then a little warmth. Then it was two robins faithfully coming to confirm our suspicions. Two hours later, a group 50- or 60-strong of their red-breasted kin flocking into our property to guarantee them. Then the juncos returning. More warmth. Then tiny plants breaking free from the soil. Then the frogs beginning to sing.

Spring is returning. The reign of the sun.

Jesus will return, too. And the reign of the Son will be far more glorious than that of a bright burning orb. The sun's nice - I like it a lot. But in the new Kingdom, we won't even need it anymore. The Son will be our light.

Now that's a Spring worth looking forward to.