The Tide

In the last year my eyes have been opened up to the subtle power of poetry. This fascination started in the Bible with the books of Isaiah and the Psalms and from there extended to Alfred Tennyson and other poets of the English language. One of my favorite things about poetry is that its meaning cannot always be drawn simply from the words, my memories and experiences often mix together with the words on the page to create something new, something provoking, sometimes encouraging, sometimes utterly heartbreaking, but always something unique. I also like to reflect on the author of the poem, and what experiences might have lead them to write the words. Sometimes I can relate, sometimes I have absolutely no idea. Furthermore a poem that I read a year ago could hit me in a completely different way today.

In light of this new found [elementary] fascination with poetry I have written what I consider to be my first poem. (Sure I've written poems for 5th grade Language Arts class, but those don't count). At the surface level the inspiration for this poem is the following scene which I witnessed in Chile in which a group of fisherman were pushing their boat out to the sea. It took them about 15 - 30 minutes to battle the waves and the shallow water and finally make it out to sea.

More than just describing this scene this poem is my attempt to describe some of my feelings about life (specifically this past year). I will elaborate more on some of the themes / things that I have been learning about life, but I prefer to let the poem stand alone for now.

The Tide

The moon pulls the tide,
And draws us from our sleep.
Through the window I peak.
Dawn has yet to break
Yet we must move.

Mother sends us with a kiss
And a loaf of bread,
Which one sustains?

It is dark
But familiar is the path to the boat.
We find her where we left her,
Just above the rising tide.

Father loads the nets, checks the fuel,
We push her into the stream that runs to the sea
But is never full.

Filled with loss,
Filled with gain,
Filled with life,
Filled with death;
All streams run to the sea,
But the sea is never full.

Only when the tide is up
Can the stream carry the boat
High enough to reach the sea.

Why doesn’t he dredge the stream?
Does he prefer to follow the tide
Or to set his own time?

We’re constrained.
Is it the inevitability of the tide
Or the familiarity of the task
That constrains us?

It’s this part I hate,
It’s this part he seems to love
How has he done this everyday of his life?
How can he continue?

The boat has hit the sand,
But the sea is within reach.
The first wave lifts the boat
Only enough to move forward a few feet.

The next wave comes.
We gain ground.
The third wave is big.
It throws us back,
We push forward and return to where we began.

The next wave laps at the side of the boat
But does not lift her.
We must wait for the tide,
Wait for the perfect wave,
Wait for the fish,
Then hurry to the market to sell the fish,
And do it all over again.

Doesn’t he get sick of all this waiting?
Ah, here it comes.
The sea is rising.
Why aren’t we pushing the boat?

The sea is pushing us back
Why is he just standing there?

Finally he starts to push the boat
Yet the waves are still beating us back.
“NOW!” he cries

We push and push
Only to be knocked
Back by the next wave.
He waited for this moment?

We give another big push
And the same fate awaits.
We are driven back
To where we began.

We pause for a moment.
I curse the waves
He smiles and comments
“The waves that you curse
Are the waves that will carry us.”

We fight the next wave,
And the next,
And the next,
Only to end where we began.

The waves are getting bigger.
We must push harder just to stay where we are,
But we also have more time to advance the boat.
We start making progress.

The next wave pushes us back,
Then we advance beyond it.
We are almost there!

Then a big wave knocks the boat sideways.
My grip slips from the gunnel
And I am knocked to the water
By the force of the wave against the boat.

My father’s face remains unchanged.
“Patience” he seems to mouth,
How will we ever make it out?
When the tide is high,
The waves are too powerful to overcome.

We straighten out the boat
And prepare for the next wave.

Push… The wave beats us back,
But we gain ground,
Push… The wave breaks over the bow
But we gain ground,
Push… We are almost there,
But the timing must be perfect.

“Now!”
We both jump into the boat
He yanks the engine pull cord
Nothing
He yanks it again
Sputter
Hurry!!
He yanks it again
Vrrrroooom

Off we jet into the rising sun.
The tide and sea finally cooperated.
Now what about the fish?

The Templeton Prize

I found this article about a physicist who won the 1.42 million dollar Templeton Prize for essentially "proving" that there must be a divine, "hypercosmic" God.

If anything, it's interesting.

Here's the link.

The Wire

I think it has already become apparent that I take my media culture very seriously. For the most part (not always) when I'm listening to music, watching a movie, or watching television - I don't approach it as a time of relaxation or necessarily entertainment. I approach it with the same meticulous demeanor that someone would pour over the Dostoevsky or the Bible itself. The author, his previous works, his life story, reasons for the creation of the music or film - all of that is pertinent and necessary. Approaching everything with the same level of detail that I would look at a Bible passage has really helped me flesh out what it means for Christianity to be a transforming effect in my everyday thinking. With this way of thinking and approaching pop culture, every once and a while you stumble upon something truly remarkable.

Yesterday, I watched this show entitled "The Wire" for the first time. I had planned on just watching the pilot episode as a study break, but before I knew it, it was 4am, my pants were soaked from repeated trips out in the rain to rentertainment and I had carved a good chunk out of the first season. It wasn't just because the show was entertaining. In fact, I would say the first several episodes were clunky, slow, and confusing. No no, it was something else.

The Wire was created by former police reporter, David Simon. The entire show takes place in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Each season follows an aspect of this city (season one - drug trade, two - the port, etc.). It chronicles the interactions between drug traders, government officials, school kids, police officers, and anyone else that is involved. To say there is one or a couple main characters is to miss the point of the show entirely. In fact the main character of the show is Baltimore.

This is one of the main things that makes the show so intriguing in my eyes. Creator David Simon has repeatedly said that his goal for the show was to create a visual novel. That is to say a show that didn't neatly wrap up episodes, have clean conclusions, have everything presented - always worrying about the furthering of plot. Instead dialogue is continually dense and it takes quite a lot effort to keep up with dozens and dozens of players in the city. It's not plot and characters that are the main focus but rather themes, motifs, and under currents. The subtle is the objective.

In the particular season I've been watching, the drug trade on the streets of Baltimore is the main focus. The series of shows focus on a detail of narcotics and homicide detectives that are trying to nail down the biggest drug lord on the west side of Baltimore. Rather than being told from anyone's particular perspective, we are instead able to listen in on everyone's perspective, both policemen and gang members. Early on it's pretty clear to see that the bad guys and good guys aren't separated by badges.

The Wire tells the story of a world where doing your 'duty' as a cop is to follow rank no matter what the order, where justice is secondary to promotions, where kids deal drugs because its the only way they can support their families, where college is an illusion, where everyone just wants to be somebody, want to have something for themselves. This is the world The Wire paints. There are few bad guys and even fewer bad guys. Everyone is simply doing what is best for them. In this world, there are no ideals.

Really it makes me think about the reality I inhabit. What assumptions do I have about people? about professions? What have I been tricked into believing? Although there is so much squalor and suffering in the show, there is something reassuring about it all for me. In a world where we have races, professions, and cultural hierarchies to help divide us - this show reminds me that despite all our attempts build intricate societal tapestries to divide one another, we're all in the same boat. We're all suffer from the same humanity that consumes us. We are not alone. We all suffer. That is reassuring for me, makes me feel a little bit better. It makes that 45 year old homeless man that lives on the street corner feel as close to me as the 22 year old kid that sits next to me in class.

If any of you do decide to journey into The Wire, just understand that is it an HBO television series and along with all the deep, socio-political commentary comes the nudity, violence, and language that you would associate with such a lifestyle. In my experience, thus far, none of it has been pornagraphic (endorsing it or glorifying it), it has simply been presented. But...still, for your information.

Unplugged (Part 1)

Is it possible to physically feel the Holy Spirit? I mean to say a moment when your mind seems to uncover the mist of God's plan allowing you to the see the interlocking of God's destiny in your life which leaves no other option than for you to be physically affected. I think people talk about goosebumps or a deep warmth in the heart of your chest. Either way, I think it's entirely there. Today, I felt that while listening to some Lauryn Hill.

You see, I love music. I absolutely love it, but I could not tell you a formal thing about it. I could not explain the use of instruments, the movement of voices or any of the complicated organizational elements. The extent of my musical experience amounts to the six months I played trumpet in 5th grade. Yet despite my lack of any formal understanding, music talks to me in a way that nothing else in the world can. I could not imagine a world devoid of Radiohead's surrealist beats, De la Rocha's war poetry, Sigur Ros's ambient beauty, or Jeff Buckley's falsetto. Music stands as fundamental to my existence as the sun on my face or the air in my lungs.

That being understood, I spent my afternoon immersed in the dense spiritual outpouring of Lauryn Hill's MTV Unplugged album. Let's acclimate you all with some history first, just in case. Lauryn Hill is widely considered to be one the most influential voices in the neo-hip hop culture. She got her start with the legendary hip hop trio, The Fugees (who stood as a living tribute to the spirit of Bob Marley). After time with the Fugees, it became clear that her voice was just too big to be contained. She started forward on her solo career, releasing her debut album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. It came out to the massive commercial and critical success. Miseducation was nominated for 10 grammys (winning album of the year) and sold over 18 million copies, both records for a female recording artist. She was on the top of her game. Cue the sound of shattering glass. After years of touring and promoting her landmark album, Lauryn stopped. She retreated into isolation, disavowing the music industry and their manipulative ways. She remained on "hiatus" for over 4 years, without recording as much as a second of music. Following the historic success of her debut album this came off as crazy. Everyone that had a pen said she had gone clinically insane. She emerged, 4 years later with a 100 minute live acoustic album composed entirely of rough, honest songs, never recorded, and clearly still under construction. The Unplugged album was more than a musician performing a series of songs. It became a view into the head of a person who had left behind a life of fame and fortune to desperately chase after God. What followed in MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 was a complete spiritual outpouring. In between Lauryn's revealing, dense songs, she spends time not only delving into her emotion state, but her spiritual motivations for all her actions. Say what you want about Lauryn Hill and the way she has gone about her life, but this piece of work comes across as nothing but one of the most spiritually encouraging albums ever produced.

Honestly, I could make dozens and dozens of posts about ways this album has affected my life, maybe I will but for now I think it's better just to expose everyone to it.

My favorite part of the album isn't even one of her songs. It's one of the interludes she takes, where she spends 12 minutes just musing. There is a lot in here, a lot. One of my favorite passages is this:

One time, it came to me, you know, I was just told very concretely. You know, it was like that voice, the right one, said to me, he said, Lauryn, You know the real you is more interesting than the fake somebody else. I just want you to know that. Because we always thought we could get, you know, we could get reality by just putting on the clothes and wearin’ the face and you know, lookin hard in the video. But, you know. Reality is..it’s like I’ve always told to my husband, it’s like, look, you know, we look at Bob Marley, you know, and we say Ok, let’s just grow locks and wear the clothes and have the band and we have no many idea how many years of struggle and pain and suffering that made that content. You see what I’m saying? You can’t get it from the outside in. Truth is from the inside out. You know, and the way we’ve been trying to heal and be healed is with these topical, surface, superficial, temporary solution. And I’m telling you, true healing is from the inside out. You know, we’ve been told to protect our outer man while our inner man is dying.

Very honestly, it was very convicting the first time I heard it. It made me realize that there were so many things that I was just doing that made me look Christian. I don't even mean to other people. I mean to myself. I was trying to look Christian to myself. Above all, it made me step back and realize that God made me to be me. He made me to love music, to want to run around and chase a plastic disc, to argue Dwayne Wade's MVP candicancy to the point of screaming. That's kind of a scary thing, because none of those things are inherently Christian. So we have a tendency to not value them, thinking that they are trivial, defaulting to a path and set of activities thats already been walked. But God made us all different, made us all beautiful. He gave us all our own paths. After hearing this, I got the confidence to start finding that path. You'd be amazed the way these seemingly trivial things have been used for the glory of God and it's all that much more effective because God has uniquely placed them in me. Believe me, it's a struggle to be yourself when no one else is like you. It's a struggle for me every single day. But it's how I see God most honestly and for that it's a struggle worth undertaking.

Here is the link to the entire Interlude 5
Part 1
Part 2
Lyrics

The entire album itself can be streamed on Youtube. More to come.

Why should faith be considered a virtue? Do you value faith as applied to other areas of life, such as medical practice or the postal system?

This is the question I had for the AAF / Cru panel and I thought I'd post my answer on here--I'm curious to hear any thoughts that you guys have on this topic, or anything about my answer. Here it is:

The main text I want to work out of for answering this question is Hebrews 11. The first thing I think I need to do here is give a biblical definition of faith, as well as a definition of virtue.
Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Biblical faith is not a vague hope grounded in imaginary, wishful thinking, but rather a settled confidence that something in the future—something that is not yet seen but has been promised by God—will actually happen because God will bring it about.” This faith is not a leap in the dark, instead it focuses on how God has continually kept his promises from generation to generation in Israel, as the Old Testament attests. We see God continually acting in a way that fulfills his promises to his people, specifically some of his covenants are in Genesis 12:2, to Abraham, Genesis 28:12-15, to Jacob, Exodus 19-24, to Moses, 2 Samuel 7, to David, and Jeremiah 31’s “New Covenant” fulfilled in Christ.

As Christians, we base our faith on God’s fulfillment of these promises he has made throughout human history—he made Abraham the father of a great nation, the ancestors of David were kings of Israel, culminating in Jesus, God gave Jacob the land he promised.
And Hebrews 11 touches on this in great detail. It focuses on major people within the historical narratives of the Old Testament, such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Gideon, David, and Samuel, who heard the word of God, responded to it, and through faith did amazing things.
Abraham, for example: Verses 8-10 say, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” Now Abraham messed up a bunch of times along the way: He told the Pharaoh that Sarah, his wife, was his sister, and slept with his wife’s servant to conceive a child, thinking this was the way of achieving God’s promise. So he wasn’t perfect, and faith doesn’t mean a person will be perfect. But he is still remembered so much for his faith in God and in what God promised him.

Whether or not you’re a Christian, you should read Hebrews 11 because it describes what it looks like to place your faith in God.

I couldn’t find nearly as concrete a definition for virtue in the Bible, other than that the Greek word for virtue is also translated to mean “excellence”. So I went to the next best thing to the Bible, Wikipedia. It said that a virtue is a characteristic valued as promoting individual and collective well-being, and thus is good by definition, but someone may have changed that definition by now.

So, based on this, I think the Bible demonstrates that faith is good by definition; heroes of the Jewish faith before Christ all had faith in God and God’s promises. This faith that is virtuous is assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things not seen.

It is here where I’ll address the second part of the question—I think there’s a little bit of a difference in the kind of “faith” that is being talked about in regard to the postal system, or medical practice, or getting on a plane. I think this more falls along the lines of the synonym “confidence”, meaning we are confident our letter will reach its destination but we also assume that we are subject to the errors of the system. Placing faith, “assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things not seen” in the postal system is setting oneself up for failure, because we have seen the system work, and sometimes not work. The same goes for medical practice or boarding a plane, we can have confidence that our surgery will go well, but we are aware of situations where it has not, and we can get on a plane confident that it will not crash, but we are all subject to failures in the system. Sometimes these things fail. Maybe only .01% of the time, but it happens. And it is seen.

Placing faith, “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” in something that you have seen fail is foolish, because in doing so, we claim assurance in something unsure. We claim conviction of something that is proven not to be foolproof. People often say they believe in themselves, rather than believing in God. If only people were as sure a thing as medical practice or the postal service! As people, we fail over and over again, letting our friends down, choosing the worse of two options, saying things that hurt others. And much worse.

But Hebrews is not done after defining faith and giving us examples of people with faith. Hebrews 12:2 calls Jesus “the founder and perfecter of our faith”. This means he is the origin of our faith—he is the origin of Christianity, and he is the perfecter in that he is the fulfillment of all things in Scripture. Jesus, and the life of Jesus, is what we place our faith in. Through the Bible, we have not seen him fail. He calls himself the Son of Man, a claim to be God, and we have faith in this.

So what does this faith look like?? I believe that Hebrews has an answer for us as well in this: 12:1 tells us to lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and run with endurance the race that is before us, looking to Jesus. This is a challenge to live a changed life—1 John 2:5-6 says By this we may know that we are in Christ: whoever says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. How did Jesus walk? In holiness, in faith in God’s plan for him, in incredible love. It is to this which we are called. And we can’t do it perfectly, as the Bible tells us repeatedly, but through our faith we can continue to grow in these. This kind of faith, I think, is a virtue.

So our faith in God comes from seeing him repeatedly faithful to his promises throughout history. We can have this “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” because of who God has been and will continue to be, unfailing and unfaltering in his promises. This is a little different than the confidence we have in everyday mechanisms like the postal service or medical practice. These things can fail, but we can put our ultimate faith in God and in Jesus Christ because God is faithful.

Am I defaulting into ministry?

Last week I had the chance to return home to Naperville to spend my spring break with my family and at my church. I was blessed with the opportunity to meet with my senior pastor and a good friend of mine who also happens to be an elder. I expected those conversations to be encouraging times of catching up. What I didn't expect was to get challenged in the area of calling. More specifically, challenged to ask the question, how do you discern your calling?

See, it's easy for me to criticize students that default into spending summers at home and entering the job market without considering where God might have them. It's much more difficult for me to discern where God might have me. It turns out, just as students might default into those positions, I'm prone to default into that which is the most comfortable and familiar to me: ministry with Campus Crusade. I think we all have the tendency to want to default into that which is most comfortable for us without challenging the underlying assumption behind that desire.

One of the most significant things that was said to me about how to discern my calling was also one of the least expected: the importance of the church in discerning how one's talents, skills and giftings might give insight into God's specific vocational calling. If it is true that the church (and more specifically, fellow believers around us) is supposed to take on a meaningful role in discerning calling, then we must ask the question, do we have people around us that are willing to be honest with us? In evangelical culture there is a tendency to tell people "nice" and "encouraging" things, whether or not they are true. So if I get up and give a talk at our weekly meeting that is fairly bad, it's pretty unlikely anyone is going to be willing to tell me, gently and graciously, yet honestly, "Kyle, that talk sucked." Do we have people in our lives that will step up to the plate and be honest about our strengths and weakenesses, our giftings and liabilities, our fruit and failure? It's far better to have honesty salted with grace, than dishonesty with good intentions.

Ultimately, we want to get equipped and trained in that which we are called. In the young, reformed crusade sub-culture, it's not surprising to find that nearly everyone believes that they are called to go to seminary and plant a reformed church somewhere in the midwest. In some ways, that's become the default for that particular sub-culture. And so again, the challenge to me, and to each of us, is to examine our calling in light of who God is, who he has made us to be, and what others say that either affirm or reject what we perceive to be God's call on our lives.

I'm praying for greater faith

A few days ago I sat down with one of the pastors at the church I'm going to here in Aspen and he shared a few stories and parables from the gospels that really encouraged me to pursue greater faith and greater understanding of our Father's heart. I'll share a bit of what I extracted from his reflections.

Take a look at Luke 11:5-13 Here, we see a man shamelessly and persistently pleading for this friend to share some bread so he can feed a guest. Think about the friend's response for a minute. He agrees finally caving to the friend's relentless requesting. Jesus goes on to explain the nature of the Father's heart, which longs to give us good things (Ps 84:11). The man going to his friend's house knew what his friend had and that he could provide for him. We must come to the Father with great persistence in prayer knowing He can move and in fact longs to move and bless us with good things and best yet, "the Holy Spirit".

Now, let's see an example from the gospels of the Syrophoenician woman doing this in Matthew 15:21-28. This woman came pleading to Jesus for Him to move. Jesus tests her first by ignoring her. His disciples asked Him to send her away because she was annoying them and Jesus responded by basically saying I came for the Jews first. Then we see she steps it up by getting right in front of Him and kneeling before Him, asking Him for mercy (Luke describes her in his account in Luke 7:24-30 saying she "fell down at His feet" and "begged Him"). He tests her again by telling her what He told to His disciples. But she replied without hesitation asking for a "crumb" from Jesus. She knew what Jesus could do, that it was only a "crumb" for Him to heal her daughter and she persistently pursued Him until Jesus moved. Jesus then told her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it doen for you as you desire." It was her faith that moved Jesus' heart to deliver.

Last is the story of the Centurion in Matthew 8:5-13. Here again we see Jesus being moved by the faith of a Gentile. He "appeals" to Jesus for the healing of his servant. The centurion knew the power of Jesus and asked Him to do even more than He initially agreed to, heal his servant right then and there. Jesus "marveled' at his faith. Faith moves the heart of God. When Jesus preached in Nazareth He "marveled because of their unbelief" and as result of that lack of faith He "could do no mighty work there" (Mark 6:1-6). I'm wrestling with this a bit, but it seems hard to get around the reality of our lack of faith limiting the miraculous movement of God (a future post will be about my recent journey in becoming a reformed charismatic, haha, but seriously).

In all of these stories we see a boldness and humility before a loving Father longing to move. Guys, I, we, need to be before the Father in prayer pleading, begging for Him to move. I heard a speaker say that "I wonder if our prayers are like a swing of the axe into a tree and when we get to heaven we are going to see a bunch of half cut-down trees." Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). May He fill us to overflowing with His Holy Spirit that we may bless others.

Confessions of a Pride-aholic

Guys, I'm going to be honest. I struggle with pride a lot. I think I've really seen it come through a good amount in the last couple weeks--it's always been a struggle on the basketball court, but I've seen it manifest itself in some different ways recently.

After the AAF/Cru panel discussion, I was extremely pride-filled, and just wanted people to come talk to me about the job I did. And tonight, when I was working on blog entries, I really felt myself wanting to come across as really smart, with a really well-thought-out post on here, equal parts funny, organized, God-glorifying, theologically accurate, and intelligent. I wrote a couple different things, which I may or may not take up writing again at some point later. But the point is, that when I come across a public forum where I can get some glory for myself, I tend to take it and revel in it.

This is my sinful flesh acting. My flesh wants some freakin' recognition. My flesh wants me to be the center of attention.

Biblically, we see that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4). I should be seeking not my own glory in these situations, and not my own recognition, but that God would be glorified and shown through me. Humility in these situations is taking a back seat and saying, "It's not about me, my answers, my blog entries, my abilities, it's about the work that God is doing in my life, and how he has changed me. It's about how incredible God is."

And that's the attitude I want to take with this blog, and I want to say a prayer for all of us as we go about writing it:

• Lord, you are incredible, and our desire is to glorify you with this blog. Lord, let us not be about ourselves, our own thoughts, our own glory, but instead to use this means of communication to better view You, to see in each others' lives and each others' growth how great You truly are. Lord, in particular, I pray that you humble me as I write, and throughout my life in general, that I would seek to boast only in you, and to seek Your renown rather than my own. God, I pray that we would be able to grow in knowing You, and that this would cause us to walk in a manner that is more fully pleasing to You, and that this would in turn lead us to desire ever-increasing knowledge of You and intimacy with You. (Colossians 1:9-10).

Why?

Why do this? Why start a blog?

As I see it, we live in a really complicated world. There are different hemispheres, different countries, different languages, different races, different occupations, different interests, and different ice creams. Then in the middle of it all is us. We are stuck in our bodies, in our skin, in our eyes and most suffocating of all, in our own minds. We spend our whole lives trying to escape this. We try and break free of the monotony of ourselves and try and connect to the world and people around us. We join clubs, travel abroad, learn languages, read books, develop relationships, end relationships - ultimately to try and relate to this world around us. Yet when it comes down to it, it's really hard. It's really hard.

Then something else comes into the equation though - a Creator. Then our methods and motivations for connecting to this world seem a little futile, a little misguided. Suddenly the motivations become bigger and grander - something we can't quite wrap our mind around.

This exists for that reason, so that we can collectively wrap our minds around our own existence. So that as a group, we can help each other. We can ask the tough questions, give bold responses, share funny stories, share shameful stories - all in an attempt to understand this life and this God which we all hold so dear to us.

Spring: The changing of the seasons

The changing of the seasons has always been a time that brings back so many memories, both pleasant and painful. The seasons are often times used in literature to symbolize different things. The Bible also uses the metaphor of seasons for so many things, and the seasons also symbolize so many biblical truths. God obviously knew what he was doing when he made the seasons.
I just found this Emily Dickinson poem a couple of weeks ago and it made me really think about spring as a symbol of rebirth, or in the Christian context, a symbol of being born again. Beginning in the fall and continuing throught the winter all of the plants have the appearance of being dead and then all of a sudden they burst for into new life in spring. The last two lines of this poem particularly grabbed my attention "And Nicodemus' mystery Receives its annual reply". Nicodemus' mystery is; how can a person that is already old be born again? God has given us a beautiful reminder of our birth into a new life in him, it will be awesome to reflect on this miracle in the coming weeks as we see the leaves and the flowers break forth into new life.
Here is the poem by Emily Dickinson

An altered look about the hills;
A Tyrian light the village fills;
A wider sunrise in the dawn;
A deeper twilight on the lawn;
A print of vermilion foot;
A purple finger on the slope;
A flippant fly upon the pane;
A spider at his trade again;
An added strut in chanticleer;
A flower expected everywhere;
An axe shrill singing in the woods;
Fern-odors on untraveled roads,-
All this, and more I cannot tell,
A furtive look you know as well,
And Nicodemus' mystery
Receives its annual reply.