Mornings in Winter, Afternoons in Spring

 

Mornings in Winter, Afternoons in Spring

It’s that time of year again! The contest is on, the struggle is underway, as the rallying strength of the sun seeks to re-assert itself over its lost domain in the North.

Darkness has had its day. Gloom and cold have been found not invincible. The great push to counter this seasonal coup is amassing strength, and the march is on, relentlessly on. The earlier dawns, the later settings, and the noonday intensity gives us hope that icy dormancy shall inevitably yield to the demand for a new lease on life.

And so we endure the AM chill, the need for heavy clothing still, the bundling up against the elements, as the sharp, star twinkle night gives way to the mounting power of the sun, cresting the barrier peaks every new day. We grab our gloves. We hat our heads. We scrape our windshields. We live our mornings in Winter, but we know our afternoons will be lived in Spring!

Yes, by the time lunch rolls around, after we have toiled through the last of the AM, we smile at the thought that a bowl of soup and a cup of tea won’t be our only comfort, the only warmth we experience, for the day itself has lifted itself up out of the old season and embraced the new. The valley has evicted its frosty shadows. Brightness clothes forest, rock and slope. The power of the sun is cupped in the valley, and the snow coat thins, brown earth appearing.

Winter in the morning, yes. For a time, in this transition, a vestige of what was. But Spring in the afternoon! Sun on our face, heads uncovered and not uncomfortable, ears not stinging, and hands set free from mitted membranes, able to touch and grasp once more.

And so a single day straddles the seasons. A single day speaks of two possibilities, two realities. And the believers know this, know this deeper, for they are the Easter celebrators, the ones who cap off the ancient conflict between Winter’s death and Spring’s life with the drama that not only best symbolizes it, but brings it to pass on the spiritual plane. For in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ death can be defeated, the dormant soul can live again, the life that was one thing can now be entirely different, the dead are quickened, the cold warmed, Winter early years replaced by Spring latter years. And all because of Jesus!

There may be mourning in Winter, adding U to the early hours, M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G, sadness and loss, grief and weeping, and you in the cold unpromising-ness of it all. But the messenger of the Lord records His holy promise to the Wintered folk, the numb and sniffing ones:

I will turn their mourning into gladness;

I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow (Winter).

    

Like the return of the sun, the Lord will take what He finds in our lives, the blue-shadowed, crystallized deadness of it and will shine His love and grace upon it till it gives in. He goes to the farthest ends to achieve His purpose of cultivating comfort and joy in our sad lives, even to the tilting of the earth on its axis, so too has He altered the world forever in His wonderful sacrifice for us.

Morning’s mourning is only because it knows nothing of a brighter, gladder afternoon, but though troubles cling to us, and cause for grief appears, yet for those who know the kiss of the Son we can count on transformation, for His triumphant turning of mourning into gladness.

For as another prophet has heard Him say:

^{ISA 45:8} "You heavens above, rain down righteousness;

let the clouds shower it down.

Let the earth open wide,

let salvation spring up,

let righteousness grow with it;

I, the LORD, have created it.”

Don’t you love that, especially in February: “let salvation spring up!” We Christians don’t appreciate the trivializing of the greatness of Easter with eggs and bunnies and flowers, but the Lord God Himself desires us to see how the physical is a pointer to the spiritual, how the seasonal circular is a pointer to the historical once for all!

^{RO 15:12} And again, Isaiah says,

  "The Root of Jesse will spring up,

    One who will arise to rule over the nations;

  the Gentiles will hope in Him."

And so believers are blessed with a brand new term, something the world does not know of, the very thing that changes our mourning into gladness. And that term has to do with our Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, our Saviour and Brother, the Lover of our souls. It has to do with the tremendous love of our God, and His power to re-create, to do a new thing, to be the Source of Life, yet again and again, and that term has to do with resurrection, with rising again to new life, and we can think of it in this way, the new Christian term that divides history and divides the phases of life, and that term is after-tomb! Yes, after-tomb! Is not this the reason our mourning is always passing away, always turning into the better, the brighter, the warmer, the livelier thing? Because Jesus rose again, because our Master continued to exist after the tomb, so we have every reason for hope, for God has defeated death – emotional, spiritual, relational, physical! LIFE is ours because GRACE is ours. And so we love our great God with all our new-born hearts! Amen!

^{RO 15:12} And again, Isaiah says,

  "The Root of Jesse will spring up,

    One who will arise to rule over the nations;

  the Gentiles will hope in Him."

    ^{RO 15:13} May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

^{ISA 60:20} Your sun will never set again,

and your moon will wane no more;

the LORD will be your everlasting light,

and your days of sorrow will end.

^{ISA 61:1} The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners,

^{ISA 61:2} to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

^{ISA 61:3} and provide for those who grieve in Zion--

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the LORD

for the display of His splendor.