The Sermon Today: SPRING IS COMING!

25 more days until spring!

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Can you believe it! Why that's just over 3 weeks. I'm breathless with anticipation! There's such an excitement and pleasure in me that anytime I feel down or upset with my life's lot, I need only remember

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25 more days until spring!
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and I immediately begin to smile again. The long winter will be banished, the world will green again, fresh breezes will blow and the sun will fill us with Vitamin D, like chlorophyll for the soul! I can hear my garden calling me even now, though it be covered with a foot of snow in most places. But I can hear it! (And it's very loud!)

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This must be what the mothers of my international students feel like. They know their child is safe and well where they are; but they also know that there's just a short time left now until they're reunited. And once they're together again, there'll be a lot of tending and touching and love and attention and affection. THAT'S how I feel about my garden.

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The first time I really even noticed and began to anticipate the passage of winter into spring was with the birth of my 2nd daughter, Amy who was born on St Patrick's Day. I was thankful for a fall and winter pregnancy, the extra warmth that those hormones brought; but of course, by the time February came, I was tired of carrying around all that extra weight and anxious to meet this baby. I can remember resting in my hospital bed with my newborn beside me; outside the sun was shining and the snow was melting and dripping from the roof over my window. I had this overwhelming sense of happiness and lightness and contentment! And March 17th remains the same for me now. It's like a turning point in my personal weather world.

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25 more days until spring!

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I know that there are those out there who look at the snow and reluctantly don their heavy coat and mukluks and pooh pooh my chorus of "spring is near"! They would remind me that March 21st does not mean the end of snow and cold, that we could yet get a storm or two. They'd then remind me that April and sometimes May can still be cold and terribly wet and dreary. "It is the Maritimes", they'd say.

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But I would say to them:

Thou art dull and muddy-mettled wet blankets!
Away with you, thou scurvey knaves!

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Don't you know that winter is beaten? Just like living in a fallen world, we may still struggle with sin, but Christ is the victor! ... and we are victors with Christ!

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25 more days until spring!

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The end is near! Has there yet been a year in your lifetime when spring did not follow winter? Have you yet to not see the return of the birds and the bugs and the mosquitoes?

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Then put aside your skepticism and take heart, I tell you; for spring is coming!

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Just keep visualizing this....

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25 more days until spring!