Ahh. Spring! Thank you, Lord, for Your gift of the seasons reminding us of Your faithfulness. Some disagree! “A faithful God? How can you say that in light of this horrible, Coronavirus striking people, taking lives, and causing economic upheaval?”
Yet, we are haunted by Thomas Chisholm’s old words, the hymn writer who claimed, “Great is Thy faithfulness!” He obtained this concept from Scripture (Lamentations 3:23) and through experience. In 1923, at the age of 57, having endured much, he penned, “Morning by morning new mercies I see.”
We must choose to see God’s mercies. And we must choose to remember that Christ holds all things together (Col. 1:16-7), even in a broken cosmos so that day and night continue to turn; that we “are loved with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3); that “The eternal God is [our] dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33:2 ); and that this life is meant to be mortal, thus a portal into eternity (John 14).
So, right here on our own property in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I’ve been choosing to remember and to see Creation’s witness to God’s faithfulness. As Chisholm described:
“Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above;
Join with all nature in manifold witness,
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.”
Our fragrant Ornamental Weeping Crabapple tree in our front yard.
I invite you into our yard to view the lovely witness of ornamental cherry, pear, and crabapple trees, the witness of a Mr. and Mrs Goose and our black bird with a red and yellow stripe perching protectively on a cattail above his nesting wife, and in closing, the witness of April Joy, a 36 hour old baby snuggled in my arms. Such witnesses are spring therapy to our weared souls.
Karen Thomas Olsen
Journey North Character 