I always love spring because it’s a time here in Minnesota when all the snow melts, the replenishing rain comes, the grass starts to become green, and new flowers begin to blossom. It’s a time when the short, cold, and sometimes dreary days of winter begin to go away, and the world seems to come alive again after four or five long months of near hibernation :) The animals become more active, the sun heats up the day, and the beauty of the earth becomes amazing!
The other day when the last of the snow (or at least what I hope was the last!) was on the ground, I noticed how dirty it was from the bits of grass, dirt, and gravel that would get stirred up and mixed with it every time the driveway was shoveled. I was trying to make a fluffy, white snowman with my little niece but some dirt kept showing up on Frosty as we gathered snow and packed it on. When the sun came out, though, the following day it did not take long for all that dirty snow to melt away into the ground to make way for new vegetation to soon follow. I love spring because all the new things that come to life remind me of hope and new beginnings. I think it’s fitting that in the spring we celebrate Easter and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ because hope and new beginnings are exactly what Jesus Christ can do for each and every one of us.
As 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
I think we all sometimes experience seasons in our lives when we feel like that dirty snow that appeared on our Frosty the Snowman that day—that dirty snow that somehow shows up underneath all the white fluffy snow on the top. In our lives, even though we don’t necessarily want it to, sometimes “dirt” threatens to creep in. The “dirt” I’m referring to is the things we allow to creep back into our lives or the things that we are constantly clinging to that are stealing our joy, tarnishing our relationship with God, and keeping us from moving forward in life. There may be seasons of our lives when we may not be focused on what God wants for our lives, and perhaps we have made some mistakes in the past that we are not proud of. It is easy when we have made mistakes to keep clinging to them and letting them prevent us from going forward for Christ. What we need to realize is that God can give us a new beginning!
I believe there are three important steps to finding our journey to a new beginning in life—a new beginning in Christ.
The other day when the last of the snow (or at least what I hope was the last!) was on the ground, I noticed how dirty it was from the bits of grass, dirt, and gravel that would get stirred up and mixed with it every time the driveway was shoveled. I was trying to make a fluffy, white snowman with my little niece but some dirt kept showing up on Frosty as we gathered snow and packed it on. When the sun came out, though, the following day it did not take long for all that dirty snow to melt away into the ground to make way for new vegetation to soon follow. I love spring because all the new things that come to life remind me of hope and new beginnings. I think it’s fitting that in the spring we celebrate Easter and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ because hope and new beginnings are exactly what Jesus Christ can do for each and every one of us.
As 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
I think we all sometimes experience seasons in our lives when we feel like that dirty snow that appeared on our Frosty the Snowman that day—that dirty snow that somehow shows up underneath all the white fluffy snow on the top. In our lives, even though we don’t necessarily want it to, sometimes “dirt” threatens to creep in. The “dirt” I’m referring to is the things we allow to creep back into our lives or the things that we are constantly clinging to that are stealing our joy, tarnishing our relationship with God, and keeping us from moving forward in life. There may be seasons of our lives when we may not be focused on what God wants for our lives, and perhaps we have made some mistakes in the past that we are not proud of. It is easy when we have made mistakes to keep clinging to them and letting them prevent us from going forward for Christ. What we need to realize is that God can give us a new beginning!
I believe there are three important steps to finding our journey to a new beginning in life—a new beginning in Christ.