I’m ready for a change of season. Snow is beautiful. But it gets old. And I grow impatient for something new–a pussy willow, a green shoot, something to show that we are not stuck in eternal winter.
Now that the calendar page has flipped out of winter I am wooed by memories of forsythia blooms dancing and long-forgotten bulbs sending up spring greetings.
Those were in another world. Mine is still pretty much black and white.
It is neverthelss beautiful– 
but I’m ready for a change. Yes, even this creature of habit who prefers that life be mostly predictable, craves newness. Thank God for seasons; He knew.
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Gen 8:22 NIV
This yearning for change makes me reflect on the human condition. Why do we grow discontent and demand something new and different in countless ways, when what we possess is functional, adequate, even beautiful? It seems we are built straining for perfection and nothing within or without is ever quite enough.
Except God.
Unchanging. Constant. Forever Perfect. His presence is what makes Heaven, Heaven and Earth liveable! Neither stifling boredom nor gnawing regret have a place in His presence. To rest in Him is to find relief from our restlessness for something new and different. Not a stitch of Him can be improved on. He radiates perfection.
And wonder of wonder He invites us to know this glory, to partake of His holiness, to be perfect! That’s going to require a radical change–a change of heart! Since God’s standard is unchanging; ours must yield to His agenda. That agenda is Jesus.
“And what God wants is for us to be made holy
by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.” Heb.10:10
It’s the story of “Good Friday”–a good God making a way for His helplessly fallen creation to share His goodness. The transaction is one of repentance, by definition a change of mind, and faith God-ward, believing Jesus’ death was on account of my sin. As we bow at the Cross acknowledging our need, God restores to us the everlasting life we were created for. He gives us His Holy Spirit as a guarantee of that inheritance and declares us holy. Then He sets about accomplishing its fruit in us–a holiness we only dream of now as we continue to repent and believe on the One who is transforming us into His likeness.
So in my restlessness for spring to fully come, may there be a corresponding eagerness for Jesus’ return to complete this salvation He’s begun in me. And in the long wait may I be as eager to yield to His life-giving voice as I am to spot a sprig of green!
For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness—so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Gal 5:5 ESV, Heb 9:28 ESV
What follows is the collection of verses from which I’ve drawn these thoughts. I couldn’t help but notice the contrast between man in need of change, and God, the unchanging eternal King who welcomes those to His Kingdom who will repent and believe…
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. —If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.—For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. —And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.
Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end.
The LORD is King! He is robed in majesty…Your throne, O LORD, has been established from time immemorial…Your royal decrees cannot be changed. The nature of your reign, O LORD, is holiness for ever. —“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
HOLY is the Lord God Almighty–the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come—But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
I Cor. 15:51-52 ESV; Job 14:14 KJV; Deut.32:4 NIV; Mal 3:6 KJV; I Sam. 15:29 KJV; Ps. 102:25-27 NKJV; Ps.93:1,2,5 NLT; Mk.1:15 ESV; Rev. 4:8 NLT; II Cor.3:18 KJV
Thank you for coming by and letting me share my ponderings with you.
May your Easter remembrances be life-giving!
–LS