7
The Miracle of Spring
The beauty and hope of the Resurrection is pressed upon us all every
springtime, as the life and color and fragrance of the early flowers and
blossoms transform the drab and uncompromising bleakness of the winter
landscape. And so too, will come our individual Resurrection from the weary,
colorless existence of the limited human being, into the fuller life that Jesus
spoke of when he said, "I AM come that ye might have Life, and have it more
ABUNDANTLY." What is this gift that brings a more abundant, a richer, fuller
life?
We have all examined the small brown seed or bulb or acorn and
marveled at the unseen pattern and force that could manifest as the glory of the
flower, the shrub, the tree. We accept this recurrent "miracle" because already
we have seen its workings, its manifestation in previous spring times, and
although we cannot answer "how" or "why" we know it can be done. We accept this
miracle. All about us are the feeble life shoots of unhappy and bewildered men
and women, beset by worry, ill health, confusion and decay... not unlike the
withered and seemingly lifeless seed we hold in the palm of our hand. Can we not
hope for and anticipate a "miracle" of Resurrection for the souls of men into
the full flower of more abundant life?
Jesus experienced the Resurrection. He said we were to share his
glory. "The things that I have done ye shall do also" represents a promise to
the race. I am sure it is not for one flower to bloom alone in the Garden of
God's Life, when nature's lesson shows the Resurrection and the joyous life of
the manifold expressions of its kingdom.
I rejoice in the Resurrection of the world of nature, in the young
birds and all the little helpless things that have no words, for in them is my
hope. I invite the Resurrection Flame which pulsate through nature in an ordered
rhythm and feel it pulsate through the souls of men. I feel it, alive within me,
bursting forth through every pore, loosing the "wax" of the tomb of matter,
until I am radiant, luminous, vibrant, transfigured. The new shoots of the
Christ Virtues are nourished and press through the "soil" of my own impurities,
which fall from me as the broken earth falls from the vibrant color of the
flower. These Christ Qualities gain strength and vigor and permanence in the Sun
of right-use-ness. Already they are visible and giving of the fragrance and
beauty and hope of their being to the world around me, and I stand revealed a
Christ Man, like unto the Master who trod the path before me and who is among
the First Fruits in the Garden of those who sleepeth still.