The warm afternoon breeze, the chirping frogs, the lush green of the grass all work together to
bring back the nostalgic feelings of our childhood days. Spring is all around us and everything
shouts "freshness and new life". Gone is the harsh dullness of winter and the chill that kept us
penned indoors. The ugly gray has been renewed with a pleasant blanket of green sprinkled with
a rainbow of color. How often we wish we could turn the clock back and experience anew the
soft spring days of our youth. Spring seems to bring with it an innocence and a hope of a new
start.
For me, spring brings with it the memories of my early life as a Christian. As the earth brought
forth new life in the spring of 1970, the Spirit of God imparted to me new life in Christ.
Wonderful excitement was the order of the day, and victory after victory were granted me by
God's glorious grace. A compassionate burden for souls and an insatiable thirst for God's Word
were everyday realities. Joy was to be found while with God's people, and missing any church
service was unthinkable.
Many experiences and pressures have passed since those days many years ago. Many times my heart has been left in the coldness of "spiritual" winter, but God's grace and faithfulness is as great today as it was so many years ago. What I must keep reminding myself is that spiritual renewal is always available, as long as I am willing to submit myself unconditionally to the Lord. Psalm 51:10 says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within me." I lived in that verse as a young Christian. Though I cannot go back to the springtime of my youth, the springtime in my soul never need give way to the chill of winter.