Outside everything moves. Looking out the antiqued window there is a tree that is aching up to the sun; it wants the small protruding buds to spring forth a leafy green. Underneath, the green grass relaxes in the presence of warm radiation. There is something about spring time that echoes the familiar voice God. When Genesis speaks its first lines, with “In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth” I can’t help but a smile to transpose on my lips. God created life. Spring, the cycle of death and rebirth. Part of me wonders if this was a foreshadow for Jesus. Either way, God created the cycle of growth in our own hearts. That is the main purpose for this text. Everyone enjoys the mystical transformations that spring makes, we revel in the concept of something growing. God did the same thing in our hearts. He created a spring.
Think that’s silly? Spiritually in the beginning, we are lost. A frosty decaying winter has settled on our hearts, and all the while everything seems okay. When the Son makes an appearance, he starts to melt the frost revealing all the treasures that there are. Just like in a physical winter, when the Sun starts to peak around, the snow melts. Then there is a re-birth. We are coming from death to life, just like the aching trees and relaxed grasses. Suddenly, in Christ we are alive. God did a nice job of showing us in the physical world what was going on in the spiritual world.
What boggles me, is how we can be such a beautiful thing, a covert manifestation of Gods genius, and we can’t take care of it the way we do our lawns, flowers, bushes, fruit etc. Luke 6:45b: “For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” I believe that God intended our hearts to be beautiful once he took possession. I think he expects us to manicure, polish, trim, cut, and build in our hearts so that we could reveal who he is more clearly. Why is it possible for us to look at spring time, look at the flowers budding, trees swaying and life growing, and be awed by it, and miss the picture of our hearts? We have no problem going outside and trimming the bushes when they get out of hand. We have no problem ripping off the dead parts of plants so life can continue to grow. Why is it when it comes to taking care of Gods most important creation, we don’t want to do it?
I think about Luke 6:45, and I think of my own actions. I think of all the things I say and do and where I am amiss, but I try to take a pair of shears to cut it away. It seems though for some of my comrades, they don’t want to do it. Their actions and words disappoint my heart, they make me worry and they make me sad. It is time to start taking care of the dead things we allow to go into our hearts. Shearing season is in.
Thnk on this. All over the bible, in both old and new testament the people of God concern themselves with how their life smelled to God. It is said that it should smell like a sweet aroma. God himself mentions nature and what he made, do you think he does not know how sweet lilies smell, or roses? Just as he made spring the time for beautiful scents to rise, he demands a manicuring of our hearts, he wants them to bring a pleasing smell, a sweet aroma
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