Spring. It’s coming back again.

The frost might still cling under the cover of night, and choke the grass and bite the seeds; but as the sun returns and warms each morning, there are bird sounds again, and smells that I had thought extinct. The other day I stepped outside barefoot. BAREFOOT! I could hardly believe it. It seems like only a few weeks ago it was so cold my knuckles hurt by the time I opened my car door.

But light brings life to desolate places (*cough* Wisconsin *cough*). Winter stomps the vine and steals its color, but each year the warmth of spring resurrects it, and it grows stronger than before. I don’t think it was an accident that Jesus used the analogy of the vine as an illustration of who He is, and how we are connected to Him. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” –John 15:5

If a branch is cut off, and winter comes, the severed branch will die, but the vine will endure. If we are not rooted in Christ, we will not be able to bear the winters, the storms, or the turmoil of life. And neither will we be able to enjoy the warmth of spring when Christ returns and says, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” -1 Corinthians 15:55

Even as our brothers and sisters are crushed for Christ’s name, Christ endures, and if we are grafted into Him, so will we.

“Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:34-39

So it doesn’t matter if I’m tending frostbite in winter, or sunbathing in summer; or dealing with turmoil, or resting in peace; if I have Jesus, I have everything I need.

But I sure don’t mind this weather.

-B. McPherson
Director of Operations
TSPF