Spring Has Sprung

I could not help but feel like I was walking in a movie set today while strolling with my puppy under the canopy of cherry blossoms that were falling like snow on the crimson tulip beds beneath the black-trunked trees. As I kept strolling, and as the sky was preparing itself for a short-lived thunder shower, I passed by the slow-moving stream that probably used to be an irrigation ditch for the farm that has become my beautiful neighborhood. Looking all around, my eyes absorbed the vibrant colors of new life poking its way into what was, only 3 weeks ago, a palette of grays and browns. 

My mind began to remember lessons of Spring and New Life and I remembered what I had learned about which season scholars believed Jesus really was born into. Although we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ, in the winter season, many scholars believe that there is evidence that Jesus' birth most probably occurred in spring. In Israel and elsewhere, spring brings the celebration of Passover. Passover is the feast that is a re-visiting for Jews; one that reminds them of the time right after the plagues, when God delivered His people out of slavery. The Hebrew nation left Egypt and slavery quickly and began their 40 year journey through the desert to find themselves totally dependent on God for their sustenance. He had promised them a land of their own, one filled with new life, milk and honey. 

Before they left, the last plague had been a curse of death by God on all the firstborn in Egypt. It had been this deadly persuasion of God that convinced the grieving Pharoah to release the enslaved people of God. God had given His believing people a way to be delivered from this curse of death. All they needed to do was to take the cleansing herb,"hyssop" and paint their doors with a sign. This sign was painted with the blood from a sacrificed lamb. This sign said without question, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."  It seemed to proclaim, "We belong to God."  So the angel of death "passed- over" the houses that bore the sign of blood and the people inside the door were saved.  

This lesson is a foreshadow for us to recognize what the cleansing blood of Jesus, our sacrificed Lamb, has done for us. Because of His love and His death, the doors to our hearts and lives are forever painted with the blood of the Lamb. Our lives will never end with Him and death has no power over us. 

So for thousands of years now, Passover has been a celebration of remembrance. The Jews remember that deliverance was given to them by a loving God who provided a way out of sin, slavery and, bondage. They remember that their deliverance was leading them to a new life.....a life that was abundantly more than they even knew to ask. 

So I was walking today thinking of new life....the new life offered me because of what Jesus, the Passover Lamb, finished at the cross. New life that came because now instead of God looking at my sin, He sees my sin hanging on Jesus. Jesus became my sin in His death.  "He who knew no sin would become sin for me that I might have everlasting life".  

In Israel, Spring is the time when all of the new little lambs are born on the craggy rocks of the hillsides and where spotless, perfect ones were at one time chosen by each faithful family to be a sacrifice to God. Their offerings, given back to God, bound them in covenant with God who was faithful over their deliverance. 

As they, then and now, partake in the Passover Feast, bitter herbs are eaten to be a picture of the bitterness of slavery. These bitter herbs are dipped in salty water to be symbolic of the tear-stained lives of slavery. A mixture of apples and walnuts,"charoset" is remembrance of the mortar used to construct the kingdom of Egypt built by Hebrew slaves........a kingdom that is somewhere none of them ever want to be again. An egg represents new and fertile life, with a promise from God for generations of people to live as covenant followers. Finally, a lamb shank on the feast platter is a symbol of the spotless Lamb of God; who takes away the sins of this gray and hurting world.

 In His perfect sacrifice, it was for me that He did this...that He spoke those final words, "It is finished." It is for me that He brought newness of life. It is for me that the Promised Land is real. 

My spring celebration this season will include thoughts of the perfection of a sacrifice that is the Blood of the Lamb. My spring this year brings an overwhelming gratefulness for new life in Him.....that I, everyday can pick up my cross and follow Him. My celebration of spring this year will be a reminder of a walk down a path that leads me to promise for new growth and death to the old; down paths that lead to everlasting water. My eyes will behold the true season.

As John the Baptist was quoted:

"Behold, the Lamb of God

Who takes away the sin of the world."