Here Comes The Sun

There is something about the sun. 

 

We, in Britain, are relatively sun-deprived for most of the year.  It is no wonder, then, that we get so excited at the slightest sign of sunshine.

 

Today has been such a day: despite still relatively crisp conditions, I have seen people out enjoying the sun in shorts and T-shirts.  I was not one of them.

 

There is something about the sun.

 

It makes us feel joyful and optimistic.  We feel hopeful and inspired and enthusiastic.  Everyone is in a better mood when the sun comes out.

 

Isaiah described how God's glory shines on His people in the same way that the sun shines on us:

 

        "Put your face in the sunlight.

        God’s bright glory has risen for you.

        The whole earth is wrapped in darkness,

        all people sunk in deep darkness,

        But God rises on you,

        his sunrise glory breaks over you."

 

        [Isaiah 60:1 MSG]

 

In Britain, we can get so used to the dark, gloomy, grey weather which is so common in our country.  We can forget what the sun is and how it makes us feel.  In a spiritual sense, we can get used to life feeling dull and gloomy and depressing, too.  We live in the shadows.  We forget that life was ever different and we doubt that it will ever be different again.

 

But when we see the sun, everything changes.

 

And when we see the Son, everything changes too.

 

 

 

 

Spring Cleaning

I always get the urge to spring clean at inconvenient moments: 10 minutes before I need to leave the house in the morning, or just before I leave work.  Sometimes the mood takes me just before bed.  Whenever it hits, I feel almost compelled to clean and tidy and sort right then.

 

There is no stopping me.

 

However, I can rarely conjure up this same spirit of ruthless sorting, organising and tidying when I want to.  I'm still able to sort and tidy, but not with the same gusto as when these spring cleaning moments occur.

 

Today was such a day.

 

I was just about to leave work when I was overcome with a desire to sort out all of the miscellaneous paper work which has been accumulating around my desk.

 

I felt so much better post-tidy.  I could see my desk again, things were organised and I felt that order had been restored to my world.

 

Sometimes I feel like I need a thorough 'spring clean' in my heart and in my mind, too.  I need to sort through all of the miscellaneous paperwork which has accumulated - the thoughts and beliefs, the doubts and disappointments and dreams - and I need to tidy them up.  Some need to be kept for the future and stored away.  Some should be thrown away and some can be recycled and made into something new.

 

I love this passage in Isaiah which describes this spring-cleaning process, this starting again -

 

"They'll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage.  They'll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new."

 

[Isaiah 61:5 MSG]

 

As it seems that Spring is perhaps finally arriving and as I start to spring-clean the places in my life, I want to spend some time spring-cleaning the places in my heart as well. 

 

 

 

False Start

As someone who is ever-hopeful for snow, the weather forecast for this weekend has left me feeling rather excited. 

 

However, whilst I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of the white stuff, I heard an article on the radio yesterday about the problem that this sudden cold weather will cause to lots of wildlife.  Apparently with the recent milder weather, the birds and the bees have been mistaking the season for the beginning of spring and have been starting their spring-time activities.  What's more, there are many flowers and blossoms blooming in fields and gardens, which will be killed off if it snows.

 

This cold weather will come as a bit of a shock.

 

Life can be a bit like that too.

 

Sometimes we feel sure that we have turned a corner, that spring is on the way.  Things in our lives seem to be finally working out, our lives seem on track.

 

And then the snow comes.  Winter returns.

 

A false start.

 

It is always difficult to pick ourselves back up again after a fall or to continue after a disappointment.  When we fail and fall, it is difficult to try, try, try again.  Instead, we feel like giving up.  Like curling up and hiding and not bothering anymore.

 

But the Bible says that when we fall, God will always pick us back up.  And with His strength, we can continue.

 

        "If the Lord delights in a man's way,

        he makes his steps firm;

        though he stumble, he will not fall,

        for the Lord upholds him with his hand."

 

        [Psalm 37:23-24 NIV]

 

 

We may fall and endure many Winters, but Spring will always come again.

 

 

 

 

 

Winter

I was just flicking through the channels this evening when I spotted that the first Narnia film is on.  It started a while ago, so I've missed the beginning, but I've seen it before so I can keep up.

I've joined the story just at the point where Christmas has finally arrived in Narnia, because of the hope that the Pevensey children have brought to the land.  Father Christmas presents Lucy, Peter and Susan with gifts and then declares, "Winter is almost over."

As we watch, the snow and ice, which have characterised life in Narnia for over a hundred years, begin to melt and disappear.  Trees bud and blossom and the world becomes green again.

It's a beautiful image as we watch things that have been dormant or dead slowly coming to life.

It reminds me of this beautiful passage in the Song of Solomon:

       "Look around you: Winter is over;
       the winter rains are over, gone!
       Spring flowers are in blossom all over.
       The whole world’s a choir—and singing!
       Spring warblers are filling the forest
       with sweet arpeggios.
       Lilacs are exuberantly purple and perfumed,
       and cherry trees fragrant with blossoms."

       [Song of Solomon 2:10-12 MSG]


I often feel that there are things in my life, or in my heart, that are frozen over

But in the same way that the ice in Narnia is melted by hope, the ice in my life and in my heart is melted by the hope of new life that comes from God's love and forgiveness.

Whatever the season.