Something is happening. New life is stirring. Flowers are stretching their arms and waking up from a long winter slumber. Trees and shrubs are releasing their tender buds and leaves in a color Crayola only wishes they could package in a 64-count box. Birds are singing and insects are scurrying. The sun is slanting in a new direction. The air smells different; cleaner; fresh…new.
Something is happening.
This morning, during our Bible study time, the kids and I read the story of Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3. Nicodemus was one of the religious elite of his time…a Pharisee. He knew all the rules and lived by them. He had seen and heard what Jesus was doing, the healings and the miracles; His preaching and teaching on the Kingdom of Heaven. He comes to Jesus under the cover of night to avoid being seen by his peers. He knows Jesus is something extraordinary, but he doesn’t quite understand, completely, the reason Jesus has come.
Jesus says to Nicodemus: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (vs.3)
Nicodemus takes this as a literal statement and is baffled by this idea of being “born again” as in a second time! Jesus is patient and full of grace as He attempts to explain to the man that the rebirth that He is speaking of is not in the literal sense but in the spiritual sense. (“Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” vs.6)
Jesus goes on to say in vs. 11-12: “I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”
Jesus is saying that even with the miraculous signs and wonders that He had been performing throughout His ministry the masses still do not accept Him as the Christ, the Messiah, God’s Son. How could He show His holiness and His power any more clearly? How will He get through to humanity? Read on…
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.” (vs. 14-15) That is how!
How is it that even though Jesus willingly gave up His own life in exchange for ours we can still sometimes miss it? How can we be so focused on the earthly, flesh things that we miss the heavenly, spiritual truths? We can get so wrapped up in the mundane; consumed by what is happening down here that we miss the grand story unfolding in the heavenlies.
There have been many springtimes that I have missed it. Where I am so worn out and cold from a long, dark winter that I just can’t see the signs of life all around me. I just take for granted that the brown, dry landscape of winter will transform to the green, lush panorama of spring. I have failed to give praise and honor to the Creator of nature; the Author of Salvation and the Giver of LIFE!
Something about this spring, though…something the Spirit is doing within me…THANK YOU JESUS, but this spring I can’t miss it! I can’t get enough of it! The signs of life are all around me and I am breathing it in as deeply as I possibly can! I feel part of me is being re-born. I sense new growth and fresh life in and around me and my family. I love the way the poet Rainer Maria Rilke describes spring:
“Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.”
Don’t you just love that image!?
Isn’t that what we should be doing as re-born, newly created and redeemed, washed in the blood of the Lamb, adopted sons and daughters of God? Shouldn’t we be shrieking and coloring our world recklessly with the blooming new life growing within us?
Perhaps that is what creation and nature are doing in spring. After all, the Scriptures tell us that if we don’t give praise to God, the very rocks will cry out! Something is happening…the flowers, trees and birds are crying out. Winter is over; the night is gone; death is defeated…there are signs of life! “Light has come into the world” (vs.19)
Something is happening…do you hear it?
