Spring Is In The Air
Yes springtime, have you noticed that the ducks that wander at will through the parks and people’s properties seem to get bolder at springtime, feed them once and they are yours for life, if we leave the door open, they would be nesting in the workshop.
It’s this time of the year when the deciduous trees wake up from their sleep over the last months, their systems start processing all the nutrients that they draw out of the ground and they begin transporting it up from the roots to the very top branches, we call it the rising of sap, and it begins the new cycle of annual reproduction so there is never a shortage of timber in the workshop or fruit trees at home.
In spring if you care to look at the fruit trees you can see the buds getting fatter until the blossoms appear all over the tree. My plum tree has got hundreds of thousands of blooms each year but getting them all to produce plums is another story.
Have you ever looked at a pine forest that has been cutover and witnessed the natural regeneration with thousands of small trees on the hillsides? Many times, in days gone by that was the natural process but today they plant pine trees with machines to speed things up and it saves a lot of time thinning them out later into an orderly pattern, so they don’t crowd each other. When considering the trees and plants who have a season of sleep, we are not so different but sometimes there are those who never wake up, the sleep I’m referring to is that of our soul which can only be awakened by God at the time of Salvation.
Romans 13: 11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed.
God has provided a method so that all humanity can wake up and share in eternal life so that when they pass from this earthly existence, they can enjoy the beautiful new beginning which is very much like the trees in springtime. But the trees in late Autumn when each tree has done all its hard work producing fruit and becomes tired, then the leaves fall off and the tree drops off to sleep for a while and waits for the regeneration of spring.
Life is a bit like that, after the initial burst of youthful life we slow down until the leaves fall off and they plant us back in the ground, but that’s not the end, no we are not like a tree, we are eternal beings with soul and spirit that leaves the body when the leaves fall. We have an eternal destiny whether you want to admit it or not, and God who made us wants us with Him in eternity. He has some amazing plans for you when your leaves fall.
1 Corinthians 2: 9. But as it is written. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those that love Him.
1 Peter 1: 3-4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
I can think of some amazing places I would like to visit but these verses tell me it is beyond my imagination to know what eternity is about, but here lies a challenge to mankind, will we accept the invitation to come and live or will we reject or neglect.
Sadly, because the soul and spirit do not die there has to be an alternate eternal destination for those who choose to reject, Jesus’ spoke of a place where remorse, regret and darkness bring eternal anguish to all who have rejected Jesus’ invitation to come and be forgiven and experience the abundant life. We do not understand the best offered us in God’s kingdom, and in contrast we cannot comprehend the terrible anguish of “Paradise Lost.” Pride is a terrible master and has caused many with best intentions, and great arguments to blindly descend that awful path to a lost eternity.
But regeneration is a wonderful thing for trees and mankind, when man realizes they are in debt to God and turn from their sin and follow Christ, He comes into a life that is like Springtime, a new joy filled life begins, knowing you are right and clean before your maker brings peace of mind. Ephesians 1: 7. In Him (Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.
Regeneration in trees is when life bursts forth in the beauty of the flowers that so often contain a beautiful scent that attracts the bees in the daytime and moths at night who pollinate and the cycle that causes fruit to ultimately develop and ripen.
But of course, some think this all happened by chance and one day the tree just decided to evolve and produce by itself, but let us consider the trees, they are really like the machines in the workshop that have many important parts, nuts, bolts, screws, you wouldn’t say the ripsaw, hand plane, or the wood lathe made themselves would you, no a designer had to plan each integral part the same as the trees and all living things.
The tree was producing sap from day one otherwise it would die, and the buds formed and produced flowers from day one, and the flowers smelled and had the mechanism to produce fruit from day one and the bees came to pollinate at just the right time from day one otherwise the whole cycle would fall apart.
You see to make it work the bee had to arrive at the very same season as the tree started flowering otherwise there would be no pollination to make fruit, so the tree needed the bee. But the bees also needed the tree to collect pollen from flowers to make honey to feed the next generation of bees to pollinate the flowers, and for the cycle to work all life had to start together at the same time. And it all happened by chance? Yeah right, give me a break. The rocking chair in the workshop needed a designer and someone to make it, what is the chance it came about by us putting all the timber, screws, glue and polyurethane in a box, giving it a shake and next day we found it complete and painted.
The God who made the trees and bees that work in perfect harmony has some amazing plans for your regeneration with Christ and for you when your leaves fall in due season.
Yeah, as a young buck I remember building a house with a couple of other apprentices and some tradesmen carpenters and Easter came around, it was the first time I understood what the cross was all about, not the X on the buns but the one that had a person nailed to it, who just happened to be the Son of God and at that time 2000 years ago He was taking the punishment for the sin of all humanity upon himself because we had a debt we couldn’t pay and He came and paid it for us.
A few months earlier I had swallowed my pride and asked Jesus to forgive my sin and my reckless lifestyle and come into my life and amazingly I experienced a change in desires and habits, I came to know God’s peace in my heart for the first time. I told the guys I worked with about my change in life which I have never regretted and some laughed, some joked, but some confided they had done the same.
Have you taken the advantage of having your debt of sin paid for, do you know that Christ has already paid for your sin? But you must ask Him into your life, and you will be forgiven and experience God’s regeneration and enjoy the place prepared for you when your leaves fall, and the lights go out in your workshop one last time.
Which reminds me that I had better check that no duck sneaked in to make a nest in the shavings out the back while we weren’t watching, don’t want to be tripping over ducklings in a few weeks.
