Autumn is a beautiful time of the year – the crispness of the air, the colors and the smell of wood smoke coming from the fireplaces about town. However, when autumn is gone, the cold, raw days of winter are upon the land. Some folks like winter most of all, but not I. I had enough winter the four years we lived in Russia to do me a lifetime. I am not too keen on 57 degrees below zero temperatures. I like the spring of the year. As things seem to die in the fall and winter, they come alive in the spring. The budding of the trees, the gentle breezes, the blossoming of the flowers, and the songs and activities of the birds all seem to instill life back into our being. Also, as I know that in the spring there will be resurrection of life in the dormant plants, I am also made aware again of the biblical promise of the resurrection. Job asked in the long ago, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). The whole creation and the God of heaven answer with a resounding, “Yes!” Having this confidence, the certainty of death loses it dread and bitterness to those who have in this life obeyed the Gospel and have, thus, become children of God. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” I am glad spring is here again, aren’t you?
