This week's Theme: Springtime Shall Not Cease
Day 1: Flowers of hope
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Genesis 8:22).
The things which are seen are types of the things which are not seen. The works of creation are pictures to the children of God of the secret mysteries of grace. God's truths are the apples of gold, and the visible creatures are the baskets of silver.
The very seasons of the year find their parallel in the little world of man within. We have our winter – dreary howling winter, – when the north wind of the law rusheth forth against us, when every hope is nipped, when all the seeds of joy lie buried beneath the dark clods of despair, when our soul is fast fettered like a river bound with ice, without waves of joy, or flowings of thanksgiving.
Thanks be unto God, the soft south wind breathes upon our soul, and at once the waters of desire are set free, the spring of love cometh on, flowers of hope appear in our hearts, the trees of faith put forth their young shoots, the time of the singing of birds cometh in our hearts, and we have joy and peace in believing through the Lord Jesus Christ.
~ C.H. Spurgeon ~ A Sermon for Spring, February 23, 1862
God opens wide His hand,
In this our native land,
Year after year;
From His abundant store
He giveth evermore,
“Pressed down and running o’er,”
Our hearts to cheer.
What though the earth may quake,
And hills and mountains shake,
He lives and reigns;
The oceans ebb and flow,
The seasons come and go,
His Word no change can know,
His truth remains.
That springtime “shall not cease,”
And summer yield increase,
Whilst autumn brings
From fields the golden grain,
From orchards fruits again,
Our frail lives to sustain,
God’s choicest things.
To Him who governs all,
And notes a “sparrow’s fall,”
All nations’ King,
We will from shore to shore,
Our loving Lord adore,
Till “time shall be no more,”
His praises sing.
~ William James ~ pub. 1888
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