The Hope of Spring — Carol McLeod Ministries

“The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day He created spring.” – Bernard Williams 

This is my favorite time of year as I look ahead to the lazy, long, hot days of summer. 

Summer is not here yet … but I am so happy I can hardly contain myself.  Spring is re-introducing itself to my cold toes and wind-chapped cheeks.   

“Nice to meet ya’, Spring!” 

And close behind spring comes its beloved sibling … SUMMER!!! 

I can picture myself on the back deck sipping a tall glass of unsweetened iced tea.   

I can hear the birds singing and the bees buzzing in the hot summer sunshine.   

I can smell the fresh cut grass.   

Now … I realize that summer is not quite here yet … my garden still has remnants of a long, hard winter … but my heart is rejoicing over all that is yet to come! 

“Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.” – Douglas Larson 

I am nearly shouting with glee so great is my joy over what is headed my way over the course of the next 4 calendar months!   

May … June … July … and August. 

After a ferocious and frozen winter that has lasted nearly 6 months, I have put my face toward the calendar date of May 1 … and await with grand expectation the days of summer that are certainly in my future. 

I know that I know that summer is coming.   

It’s coming … it’s coming … it’s coming. 

I don’t have one doubt.  Winter will not last into June … it does not have the audacity nor the permission to linger beyond its seasonal boundaries.   

I am convinced that summer is only a few short weeks away.  

I rejoice … I sing … I shout over what I am unable to see with my eyes. 

I can’t “see” summer yet …  but I have the absolute faith for it in my sun-deprived heart. 

The sure promise of what is ahead gives me joy for today. 

The certainty of what tomorrow holds creates a grin on my countenance today. 

The ever-increasing nearness of sunshine, humidity, glorious flowers, and firefly evenings all set my heart rejoicing today!  Now … before it even happens! 

And then … the Holy Spirit gently whispers into my winter-weary heart … “Carol, your loudest shout should ALWAYS come before something happens.” 

And with those words … I am humbled once again. 

Why is it when I am unable to see something in the natural that I whine and complain?   

Why is it that I grow impatient with what God has promised … and rather than rejoicing with expectation … I have been known to groan with frustration.   

And complain with agitation.  

How dare I tap my toe and shake my head at God?  How dare I? 

Just as summer is around the very next corner … so are the promises of God.   

After all, He has never made a promise that He has not kept. 

Our loudest and most enthusiastic shout should never be a shout of thanksgiving for all that has transpired … but our loudest and most enthusiastic shout should always be about what has been promised. 

We are, after all, the people who are called to walk by faith and not by sight. 

We should be identified by the prevenient yell that comes as a prelude to an actual and expected event. 

Anyone can roar in gratitude after a gift has been given … but it takes a stubborn believer and a person filled with audacious faith to bellow in certain anticipation of a promised event. 

And just as I joyfully scream in the prospect of long, summer days … so should I splendidly shout in the expectation of a healing … or of needful provision … or the answer to a long-awaited prayer. 

Your loudest cheer should be because of what you see in your future not over what you have experienced in your past. 

And so, as certain as spring follows winter … and as surely as summer follows spring … I will stand with my hands raised in worship … and my mouth filled with praise … over the anticipation of what God is about to do in my life. 

I don’t need to experience it factually to rejoice in it by faith. 

My shout is an anticipatory cheer and it echoes across the pages of the calendar of my heart.   

I will sing in advance … and I will raise a psalm of gratitude even before God answers my prayer.   

I will. 

 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, for by it the men of old gained approval.” – Hebrews 11:1 & 2 

Thanks for listening to my heart this week.  As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart, but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me.  And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is.