Can you believe how long this winter seems to have been? I even heard someone who loves winter say, ‘This is too much even for me!?
I actually don’t mind winter as much as the snow and this has certainly been a record-breaking season.
I am looking at the calendar and hoping nature cooperates with what I am reading. According to the calendar it should be spring next week.
With an early Easter I am especially hoping for change. It just won’t be the same if we have to celebrate Easter with snow on the ground, heaven forbid!
Easter brings with it a sense of hope for better things.
Easter is the holiday that we as Christians celebrate as the time of the resurrection of Christ.
Jesus had to die in order to pay the price for our sins. His resurrection demonstrates His power over sin and all the consequences of sin we fight through each day. For non-believers Good Friday must seem like a gruesome sight that we actually celebrate the crucifixion that occurred on Good Friday.
The crucifixion represents someone not only dying on a cross but also suffering untold agony and pain. We celebrate not only for the benefits it brings us but also the fact that we have someone who willingly offered Himself for us. What an amazing picture of love this story demonstrates to us.
With the resurrection that followed the death of Christ we can now have great expectations for our future. If Jesus can triumph over death there is no situation we face that we can not also have the hope that something better is yet to come.
With the celebration of Easter we can confidently say there are always new beginnings and fresh starts. Through television and as I travel I am telling the people of the world God wants us to know it is a ‘New Day!?
I am convinced people need to change their mindsets and look to the future with great expectation instead of a negative outlook.
Are you in need of a New Day? Do you need to believe that your long winter of life can give way to a spring of new life?
Start by reaching out to God by faith and asking Him for new hope. Then start living your life with that new expectation guiding you. The Bible says faith without works is dead faith.
At the first hint of spring we Michiganders. as my grandpa used to call us, begin working in our yards. We plant grass and flowers, start cleaning up the lawn furniture. Why? Because when the good weather comes we do not want to miss a day of it. Some of our work will be premature simply because we are in a hurry but some things will be because we never really know when spring will actually be here.
Most of us will keep pressing ahead because our hope will be in the future. We need to do the same thing with our lives in general.
The Bible says if you want to understand the invisible God simply look at the natural order. When you see what God has created and how it operates it gives us a clue as to what to expect.
He is the God who creates times and seasons for the earth but also it is true in our lives.
Winter speaks of death and loss. Life deals out death and loss but it also holds the promise of the life which is to come.
Don’t let the severity or length of your ‘winter? hold you back. Get ready for your New Day!
The Rev. Loren Covarrubias is pastor of Mt. Zion Temple.