At last! It’s Spring! Well, by some measures it is, anyway. The clocks have changed, we have emerged (I trust) from the long cold spell, the daffodils are out – in time for St Patrick rather than for St David this year! And watching the birds and trees, new life is all around. As a result of all these things – and a bit more sun and warmth – many of us feel better, about ourselves and about the world around us. It is a time of hope, of new life.
All this happening as Easter approaches is brilliant, theologically. Just as our beautiful county is so green because of the seasonal cycle, so our spiritual life can benefit from due attention to the liturgical “seasons” and their significance. Almost as soon as April starts we are pitched into the depths and the heights of God’s grace and mercy and love – and as we read in Ephesians 3 and Psalm 139 we can never reach the limits of that love.
We see the depths of our human sinfulness, and the thoroughness of God’s plan, and the strength of Jesus’ obedience to His father’s will, as Jesus on the cross becomes sin for our sake. And we see the heights of glory and share the excitement of triumph revealed in the empty tomb and the startling but thrilling resurrection encounters.
And somehow, just as the new life of spring is more glorious because of the darkness and icy coldness that proceeded it, so our new life in Christ is shown in more glorious colour when we see the death and darkness from which we have been delivered. And our hearts cry “Alleluia!”