Spring

Yesterday was Easter.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day – full of sunshine and “spring-y-ness”. And at church, we focused on thoughts of Christ and his death and resurrection. That’s what this season is all about! Yet, I found myself thinking – “They can’t tell me anything new…I’ve heard this all before.” And I felt myself zoning out.

How shameful! And sad. To think that I could already know all there is to know about my Savior’s love for me? But how often I fall into the trap of pride – thinking I know things and missing out on what God is trying to teach me.

It made me think of an older hymn by A. Katherine Hankey:

I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story, because I know ’tis true;
It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.

I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory,
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

I love to tell the story; more wonderful it seems
Than all the golden fancies of all our golden dreams.
I love to tell the story, it did so much for me;
And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.

I love to tell the story; ’tis pleasant to repeat
What seems, each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet.
I love to tell the story, for some have never heard
The message of salvation from God’s own holy Word.

I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song,
’Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.

That last verse always gets me. Those who know it best are hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest… What better thing to dwell on than this WONDERFUL story!?!?

I’m just about to leave for good ol’ NC after spending some time in PA. I’ve spent fabulous time with family and friends, visited beautiful places, read lovely books, and worked on papers for my Masters work. (woo hoo!)

I’ve been re-reading through my Anne of Green Gables series, and found this quote in Anne of Windy Poplars which seemed to sum up how I’m feeling about leaving home:

“I came up today, bag and baggage. Of course I hated to leave Green Gables. No matter how often and long I’m away from it, the minute a vacation comes I’m part of it again as if I had never been away, and my heart is torn over leaving it. But I know I’ll like it here…” (L.M. Montgomery, p. 12).

I love home. I love my family more. But I know that God is taking me exactly where I need to go. I need to focus on His story – the one that is more glorious than “all the golden fancies of all my golden dreams”. And...He’s writing my story – and the time and place he has determined for me is NC right now. And I will go – I know that I’ll like it there – because Jesus is with me wherever I go!

One of the things I had to read for class this week was a chapter of Henry David Thoreau’s book – and this quote stuck out to me:

“We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our
duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring.” (Thoreau)

I don’t think anything is accidental. I do think God has planned my story out – and I thank Him for a new springtime! May I not loiter in winter when He has already given me spring.

And what better way to start spring than to remember the old, old story – of Jesus and His love.