My roses are starting to grow new leaves.
Spring comes much earlier in North Carolina. Before many more days have passed, the magical misting of green will appear across millions of lacy twigs that spread out above us. Right now is the time for daffodils and Spanish bluebells to grow for all they're worth, before the canopy of leaves arrives and shields them from sunlight.
This is my fifty-fifth spring, and I am happy to be able to experience it. I love spring, and babies, and puppies: new, small, sweet, tender, fresh things. New beginnings.
August tomatoes are a delight, homegrown, juicy and full of flavor. Yet, even though I can't eat a peony, no tomato has ever thrilled my soul the way a fluffy pink peony blossom can. Autumn is for tomatoes and apples, pumpkins, cukes, carrots and peppers. Bountiful, edible blessings, they fill our stomachs with plenty and our hearts with gratitude. But spring is so full of hope and promise, all the things that might be but are not yet, as new life emerges, untainted, innocent and eager.
Roses begin to sprout new, tiny leaves. They are, to date, perfect, unsullied by black spot.
Spring is newness of life, which always points my mind to Christ, who is making all things new. All of us who are in Christ, who depend on Him, listen to Him and abide in Him, are new creatures. The old has gone, the new has come. He has given us new, fresh garments of righteousness to wear. Our old garments of sin and death are put off, rolled up, thrown away.
In Christ there is no decay. In Christ there is no deterioration. The infinitely abundant water of life flows into us through His Holy Spirit, our gift from Him at the point of our conversion. His Spirit renews, refreshes, nourishes and cleanses unceasingly. The gift of the Spirit is His kept promise to us. His Spirit comes into us when we first believe, enabling and augmenting that belief, sealing us as God's immortal children forever. He brings His everlasting life into us, right into our being, and He generously offers to refill us with more of His Spirit whenever we ask.
God is life.
He created us and gave us life.
Everything God created was good.
God, the Source of life, created male and female, biology,
so that life could continue,
over years and generations,
newness arising in miracles of tender leaves unfurling
as the infinitesimal stalks of close-wrapped columbine shoots starting to unroll in my plastic pot,
and slippery babies emerging from wombs,
some tiny, wrinkled, ready to be plumped up with good milk,
others so round and lush, they need a few hours to fluff out after being crushed inside close quarters.
All gorgeous. All brimming full of potential.
God is life, and God is righteous.
Righteousness is love and health,
faithful obedience to God,
connection to truth,
and sincere appreciation for everything good and pure.
God is righteous, and righteousness results in life.
Righteousness results in flourishing life, abundant peace, overflowing joy.
But sin leads to death.
Sin came to us through the Curse of Adam,
and the way of sin results in death and eternal condemnation.
God hates sin because He loves us,
and sin hurts us.
In His love, God desires that His children
would live and flourish,
protected from the ravaging destruction of sin.
Sin is all based on a lie,
so its foundation is deception.
No-one who is grounded in the truth
and focused on the all-surpassing glory, beauty and worth of God
is drawn into sin.
We are drawn into sin when we forget the truth
and believe the lie that things other than God are more satisfying, more worthy than God.
At the root of the the lie that leads us into sin
is pride.
Pride tells us that we know better than God.
Pride tells us, "You are the only one who can decide what is right for you."
And pride tells us, "You have the right to decide what you need and then fight for it."
Pride tells us, "Nobody knows how hard your life is. Your life is harder than anyone else's."
And pride tells us, "It was too hard for you. It's not your fault. It's God's fault, actually."
Pride convinces us to confuse the Curse of Adam with the Creation of God,
and lay the blame for the problems that result from the Curse of Adam
on the shoulders of God.
It's very appealing, to think that we are so important, so innocent, so maligned.
And it's rampant.
Everyone thinks he is the protagonist in his own story;
it goes with the internal monologue that our thoughts narrate to us each day.
Even when we behave heinously--
lying, cheating, stealing, coveting, idolizing,
indulging our sinful desires,
selfishly seeking what we think will bring us pleasure,
hurting people, influencing people to sin, casting wicked words around like chaff--
we fail to look beyond our own blinded viewpoint,
striving to justify ourselves,
and imagining ourselves to be the one who was wronged.
When we run out of people to blame,
we blame God Himself,
and then, in our irrationality, our deepening delusion,
we deny His very existence.
How can you blame One you don't believe exists?
We are pitiful, in our sinful state. Sin does that to us.
The paradox of pride is that it robs us of our dignity.
Sin disfigures our souls, turns us into monsters.
The Bible compares sin to leprosy,
a disfiguring disease that ruins lives, forces people to live "outside the camp"--
isolated from purity, limited to relationships with others who suffer from the same disease.
We don't know much about leprosy, but we know cancer.
Sin is also like cancer, the spiritual parallel to cancer.
Often, it creeps in invisibly, quietly,
damaging in secret,
leaving only small signs that are easily ignored,
remaining hidden until it goes metastatic and lethal.
It kills: slowly, steadily, painfully, tragically.
God sent Jesus to release us from this wasting disease of sin.
God sent Jesus to bring us life.
Life is the result of righteousness,
the result of connection with God through His indwelling Spirit.
For when you were slaves of sin,
you were free in regard to righteousness
[i.e. you could focus on yourself
and ignore God's calling
for you to live a life of sacrificial love].
But what fruit were you getting at that time
from the things of which you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death.
But now that you have been set free from sin
and have become slaves of God
[who is the kindest master, Matthew 11:29],
the fruit you get leads to sanctification
and its end, eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death
but the free gift of God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:20-23
***
"Today if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."
Hebrews 3:15
He is making all things new. He offers new life, righteousness, holiness, peace and joy. He holds it out to you. You must repent. You must grieve because of all that you have done wrong, and surrender to His healing hands. It will involve pain. It will be hard. But it will be good. It will be good. He promises that He will give you so much more than anything you lose in the process. Oh, please come to him in faith and humility, repentance and hope, today.
//(Note as of 4/7/2021 -- I have given up writing posts of 75 words or less. I am not a good enough writer to keep that up.)//
