Thoughts of Spring

by Bobby L. Graham
via Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 2, February 2015

"My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away" (Song of Solomon 2:10-13).

The first day of Spring this year is March 20 (according to the astronomical definition), in keeping with the vernal equinox. The equinox occurs when the sun is directly overhead at the equator on its northward journey, thus distributing its warming and light-bringing rays to people in the Northern Hemisphere to a greater degree than in the last few months. In its trek to the north, it provides us with an equal period of daylight and darkness for this one day, comparable to the autumnal equinox in September.

In our opening text, Solomon describes the reappearance of flowers, the songs of birds, and the fruiting of the fig tree and grapevine in areas of the Bible lands with a Mediterranean climate. What a season is spring! Its very appearance reminds us of some important matters.

Beauty

The beauty of the earth and our surrounding universe is so astounding as to make foolish the claims of atheists and other unbelievers. Such beauty and order as prompt the wonder and marvel of intelligent beings do not just happen. To believe that the systematic arrangement of day and night, spring and the other seasons, and the movement of the sun and other heavenly bodies are mere happenstance, accidents of nature, is to believe that which has no credible evidence undergirding it. The rose, the daffodil, the tulip, and the corn plant reproduce after their kind, precluding any possibility that human beings, plants, or animals will somehow blend gradually into some new form of life (Genesis 1:11). One had as well believe that a house suddenly appeared down the street without designer or builder, as to believe that this orderly world (cosmos), governed as it is by fixed laws of nature, simply came into being on its own or resulted from the disorder of some “Big Bang.” The Lord has spoken about such matters, and we need to trust what He has said.

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3).

Dependability

Have you ever known a time when the seasons failed to follow their annual cycle? We do not mean that spring always means warm weather, with no reminder of the past season. Spring is often a chilly season, reminding us that winter is not far removed, because it is a transitional time. You can mark it down and “take it to the bank,” though, that the season known as spring will arrive, because a dependable God has thus arranged it.

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22; cf. James 1:17).

Wisdom of Taking God at His Word

One as dependable as the Maker of heaven and earth, who has acted for the benefit of human beings, whom He has fashioned in His own image, deserves our trust and obedience. In this way of life, man finds his completeness, for he was made for fellowship with God (Ecclesiastes 12:13; 3:11; ASV). Apart from God and the spiritual dimension, man is incomplete, and all of life becomes vain. Solomon discovered this to be so in his quest for happiness and fulfillment. Only after his experiment in the laboratory of life had failed did he conclude in Ecclesiastes 12 that fearing God and obeying Him is the whole of man (completeness, where man finds his fullness). Separating human beings from God and the spiritual is as spiritually perilous as taking a fish out of water is to its physical survival.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7).

While we look forward to the warmer temperatures and gentle showers of this new season, may we not allow the season to pass without springing into action that will build a firm foundation for the rest of our lives, even in the face of the severe storms and frigid blows of winter. Then we will be able to say with the psalmist David, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me” (Psalms 23:4).