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Spring Has Sprung…

By March 22, 2019August 30th, 2022Devotional

I was reading an article yesterday and suddenly realized that it was officially the first day of spring, 2019. I know that we recently moved the clocks ahead an hour, and it seemed early to me, but I didn’t equate that action with the impending beginning of a new season. I wasn’t looking for much information on the event, but there it was. And I learned several things that I guess I didn’t realize all these years.

For example, the spring equinox is the date that the sun is, for all intents and purposes, directly over the Equator. This means that, other than at the North and South Poles, most places have about 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night. As we all know, at various times of the year, the days seems longer and the nights seem shorter, or visa versa. But I never really thought about the fact that at the equinox, the daylight and dark were virtually equal.

The article went on to teach me that because of the location of the sun in relation to the earth, the sun rises in the real east and the sun sets in the real west because the earth is not tilting on its imaginary axis this day. And, to be perfectly transparent, I didn’t know that either – or the fact that spring started at exactly 5:58 pm eastern time last night. On top of all that, yesterday evening marked the last time this year that we had the chance to see a supermoon. That is, a full moon when the location of the moon is closer to the earth than normal. Of course, this gives the appearance of a larger moon in the sky than we are used to seeing and it occurred at exactly 9:43 pm eastern time last night.

The astronomers and scientists continue to amaze me with their predictions of the exact moment that these celestial events occur. For example, the arrival of spring occurred several hours before the appearance of the supermoon. I guess I also never thought about the exact times that these things occur but it highlights for me how exacting God is with His grand plan. And how overtly complex it all is.

Because now that we are in the season of spring, we will start to see the crocuses pop up (our are already trying), the tulips and hyacinths will be next – and soon we will have yards and gardens full of beautiful flowers. Each one will be different from its neighbor and they are all exquisite in their own way. There is no way that this could all happen randomly without a divine God overseeing the creation of nature and all that it includes – plants, animals, oceans and seas, land masses and the creation of Man in the image of God.

One of the things that I thought about is that the Bible is full of illustrations where time plays a major role. Jesus met with people and they were healed at “that very hour.” Or when the Lord told people that something would happen at a certain hour – and it occurred exactly the way that it was prophesied. We are even given exact times that events with the life and death of Jesus happened on the cross. Time is important as it relates to things that God says, but that is not to be confused with the fact that time is of no consequence in the context of eternity.

Yet there is one thing where the timeline is very vague. And that is our verse for tonight. We are told, in Matthew 24:36, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” So what is Matthew referring to? He is speaking about the return of the Lord. Even Jesus Himself did not know the exact time or the hour – just God the Father. And when you think of all the exact mentions of time in the Scripture and the beginning of the seasons and the time that the moon appears or the full moon rises, isn’t it grand that the thing that we all yearn for – the return of the Lord, is the one thing that nobody can predict or know – not even Jesus…

My encouragement tonight is that God wants us to be attentive to Him and to each other because we are to be ready for His return. My prayer is that we will stay strong and act in ways befitting those who are awaiting the return of the King because none of us know the exact time that this will happen. So please take the TIME to enjoy all that is around us and have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…

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