Spring has begun in the Ozarks. Redbuds' purple buds are visible. Light yellow-green leaves have budded on some trees. Yellow forsythia and daffodils are in bloom. Warm-weather grasses are turning green.
People are smiling more. Most greetings are: "Isn't it a beautiful day?"
Young lambs, kids and calves cavort in fields and pastures. Children beg to wear shorts instead of jeans. In the subdivisions, children are riding their bicycles. People are walking their dogs. The parks are full of children swinging, sliding, playing in the sand. Teen-aged youths are playing basketball and skateboarding.
It wasn't really that long ago that we were buried beneath inches of ice and snow bemoaning the cold of winter. How quickly things change.
As nature shouts the message of new life, so too, does Scripture and the holiday this weekend.
This Sunday is Easter, also known as Resurrection Sunday, a day recognizing and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave three days earlier. Many people who do not regularly go to church will attend church this Sunday.
Most people will be sporting new outfits. Families will gather. Photographs will capture the moment.
Something about beautiful, sunny, mild-temperature days of early spring evoke joy and a new spirit of life in people. Even now as I write, sitting in the sun enjoying the brilliance and warmth, the birds are singing, twittering, whistling.
The most important thing to know is that there is hope. Jesus Christ died for you and for me to give us new life. No matter how hopeless, how bleak your life may feel, there is hope.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," 1 Peter 1:3 (New American Standard Version).
Not only is there hope of new life, there's hope for second chances. God painted the picture of life, the story of the resurrection in the circular advent of seasons. Every year, there is winter when life seems dark and cold and there is no sign of life in nature. And every winter is followed by spring with brilliant new life accosting our senses.
When your day, your season of life, seems bleak, dull and you're tempted to despair, think of the winter just past and recognize that it will pass, it will change, and you will have joy again.
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Editor's note: Annette Beard is the managing editor of The Times of Northeast Benton County, chosen the best small weekly newspaper in Arkansas for five of the past six years. A native of Louisiana, she moved to northwest Arkansas in 1980 to work for the Benton County Daily Record. She has nine children, four sons-in-law, six grandsons , two granddaughters and another grandchild on the way. She can be reached at [email protected].
Editorial on 04/01/2015