Spring Joy in Sadness

Posted Apr 4, 03:53 PM by Kay Camenisch

This spring has been one of the most beautiful I have ever experienced. Yellow, white, pink, purple, and red grace our town from one end to the other. Smells of cherry blossoms, mown grass, and plowed soil tickle the nose. The joyful song of wrens awakens us to welcome the day. Spring lightens my heart and makes me grateful for life and growth, but today sadness invades the joy of the season.

The flowers are still magnificent. The cherry trees outside our window are loaded with beautiful white blooms. The dogwood and redbud are almost at their peak. But tonight . . . tonight the temperature will drop to the mid 20’s. In the morning, all the blooms will be dead. I’m sad for the interruption in the season, for the beauty that will so quickly fade, for the life that will seem to suddenly be gone.

But in the midst of the sadness, I rejoice. God tells us—and our experience confirms—that the grass withers and the flowers fall away. If they don’t wither tonight, they will be gone in a few days anyway. The fragility of the flowers reminds us that we too are limited in our time on this earth.

We don’t know when our lives will end, but we can rejoice because the Word of God lives and abides forever. We also have eternal life as we live and abide in Him. Our fleshly bodies will fade, but we can live forever.

Not only do we have eternal life in Christ, but if we delight in the law of the Lord, we will be like a tree planted by the waters—a tree whose leaves do not wither—and we’ll prosper in whatever we do! Our leaves won’t turn brown and wither like the flowers?

Hmmm. Does that mean we’re evergreens? –Or maybe that life continues for us through the ups and downs in life? A sudden drop in temperature (or whatever circumstance that would be in our lives) won’t be our end, because our roots are firmly planted in Jesus. He will sustain us in the harsh times of life, as well as save a home for us in eternity. Now that’s something to rejoice about!

(See 1 Peter 1:23-24 and Psalm 1:3)