New Light, New Day, the Spring has Come

 

1 As comes the breath of spring with light and mirth and song,

so does your Spirit bring new days brave, free, and strong.

You come with thrill of life to chase hence winter's breath,

to hush to peace the strife of sin that ends in death. VU 373

Over the years we have planted several flowering trees in our yard, a lilac, pagoda dogwood, cherry, catalpa. The catalpa is always slow off the mark to leaf and flower and each year we wonder if it will at all, but we live in expectation. The lilac is already in its visual glory and the the fragance is wonderful. One of our grandchilden responds to lilacs as though they are the eighth wonder of the world and perhaps she's right. 

There are some perennials which are in blossom as well, and the lettuce, chard, and peas are pushing out of the ground in our raised beds. Of course the garlic has been up forever, or so it seems.

I find springtime so marvellously hopeful. We're told that this past winter was one of the dreariest on record in Southern Ontario and in our household February COVID, followed by colds, tested our resolve. Yet here we are, revelling in the beauty of these recent days. Yesterday a male rose-breasted grosbeak and a male ruby-throated hummingbird came close at hand while we were sitting outside and we were enchanted.

1 The spring has come, let all the church be part of it!

The world has changed, and God is at the heart of it!

New light, new day, new colour after winter grey.

New light, new day, the spring has come, let all the church be part of it! VU 187

Decades ago an earnest theologian whose work I generally appreciated wrote an article in a major publication essentially warning against associating springtime with Easter and the resurrection. His concern was that we were drifting into the dangers of pantheism. I wondered why he was so concerned that exulting in Creation would lead us away from our resurrection hope rather than toward it, and I suppose I still do. For me all creation cries "glory!" in what is the liturgical season of Easter. 

Hymn writers have long understood the power of Earth's annual renewal and the Resurrection of the Christ, as these verses from three hymns remind us. I might have included Now the Green Blade Rises while I was at it. Thank God, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer for spring! Pass it on. 

2 What a wondrous time is spring when all the trees are budding,

the birds begin to sing, the flowers start their blooming;

that's how it is with God's love, once you've experienced it:

you want to sing, it's fresh like spring, you want to pass it on. VU 287