Spring is a time of light and life. The days are lengthening, and the clocks will soon change. It is good to have the lighter mornings and soon the longer summer evenings will be with us. Many of us have found the wet and dark days of winter difficult even if we don’t suffer from seasonal affective disorder. A bright array of spring flowers is blooming – snow drops, crocuses, primroses, daffodils, tulips, forsythias, magnolias – all bringing a delightful array of colour to our lives. They are all clear signs of brighter, warmer days to come, and they lift our spirits.
They also remind us that the things God does fill our hearts with hope whereas many of the things that people do promote a sense of hopelessness. God’s wonderful creation declares to us that he exists. He is there and clearly communicates with us telling us what he is like. The Apostle John says, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” John also tells us about Jesus that he “gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”
The loss of faith in the Western world has left many with a feeling of meaninglessness and a profound sense of hopelessness. Young people feel this keenly. Again and again, we are told that we human beings are simply animals who have evolved over millions of years. At the end of life there is nothing for us. But is this true?
The Apostle Paul once preached in Athens, a centre of Greek culture where they worshipped many gods. Paul wanted them to know the living God and said, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.” The signs of spring remind us that God “is not far from any one of us” and that “in him we live and move and have our being.”