Renewed Hope

This winter has been cold and long and snowy. The brown grass blends in with the dull trees. The flowers of last spring and summer have long disappeared leaving their skeletons behind. As I look around, nature looks pretty dead. As I was thinking about this grim view, a special verse from the Bible came to mind. This verse says, "And it came to pass..." You can memorize that one pretty quick! Thankful it did not come to stay....it came to PASS. The seasons come to pass. Winter will pass. Spring will come again. Spring is already in the deadness of winter waiting for the right moment to burst out in glorious color. Ready to bloom!

Nature provides evidence of this. Sap from the maple tree depends on the dormancy of winter. The flow of the sap is reliant upon temperatures rising above freezing during the day and dropping below freezing at night. The fluctuation in air temperature gets the sap moving. Looking dead on the outside, the maple tree is gearing up for its inside juices to spring out.

Our lawns and other grasses, especially cool season grass such as Kentucky Blue Grass ad fescues look brown and dead. The dormancy period of grass looks pretty dull from the surface, but if we were to peek underground, we are in for a surprise. The roots love the temperature to be 55–65-degree F range to really spread out. Long before we see the first shoot of green pop up in our lawn, the roots have broken dormancy and have started to grow spreading out their long feelers.

Things can appear dead on the surface yet be alive and full of growth beyond what we can see. How grim that long ago Friday must have been. Jesus was dead. The great miracles, the amazing messages, the mind-blowing prophesies of ages past all seemed to come to an unthinkable end. The disciples left everything traveling around with Jesus for over three years. What do they do now? The happy 'hosannas' shouted throughout the city a week earlier were replaced with a flood of tears. That Friday was about death. The price taken for the wrong things said, done, or thought. Jesus said, "It is finished."

Good Friday was not a surprise or a turn of events for Jesus. He knew that He would choose to give His life for the whole world. He knew that He would fulfill every prophesy, suffering the cost for all people's sin (wrongs that separate us from God). He knew that His death would bring eternal life to anyone who believes in Him. His 'winter' came to pass. Spring was already in the roots of Good Friday. This was all part of God's plan. "Yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause suffering of His soul... After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied." Isaiah 53:10-11

Sometimes life might seem like the deadness of winter. Everywhere we look, the landscape of our lives appears brown and barren. The horizon of our outlook looks cold. Icy winds blow cancer, divorce, auto accidents, separations, disabilities, growing old, even death... This Easter, as we remember the cross on Good Friday, hopefully we can celebrate Resurrection Sunday with renewed hope. Our circumstances might be grim on the surface, but our faith seeing eyes know that beyond what we can see, God is growing deep roots grounded in His one and only Son, Jesus. "It may seem like Friday night, but Sunday is on its way!" Spring has come! Martin Luther said, "The Lord has written the promise of the Resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf of springtime."

God is faithful...Mama says

c. MamaSays 2025