Spring – A New Birth

I love Spring. Spring is a time for renewing birth. The trees bud in an array of colorful blossoms and leaves, the tulips and daffodils display beautiful new petals reaching for the sun and its warmth. I love to sit outside and watch the birds flitting back and forth frantically looking for materials to make their nest for the hatchlings that will soon fill it. I know that if I were to go to a farm I would see new chicks, calves, lambs and ducklings dotting the landscape. The whole realm of nature seems to sing with the anticipation of new life.

 
Spring reminds me of the new life we have received from of our Lord. In Romans 6, we read of this new birth.

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (vs. 4).

When we were baptized in the likeness of Christ’s death, we put off the old man of sin and its follies, and rose to live a new life. A life free from our past sins (v.6), a life lived for Christ (v.11). We sometimes forget in our daily struggles the wonderful way we felt when we rose from that watery grave, a new creature, forgiven of our wrongs, and freed from the guilt of those wrongs. We came from that state of death, into new life just as nature comes to life after a dead winter.  We need to remind ourselves how it felt…that moment we were reborn. We need to “get excited” about it once more and sing with joy and thanksgiving that we have been given that chance to start over.

 “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin– because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. .” – Romans 6:6-8

Just as a seed must be buried before it can bring forth life, so must we do the same to the old man before we can be reborn as a new babe in Christ.

But it’s not just a rebirth from sin we should look for, but a rebirth of our mind.

“you were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”. - Ephesians 4:22-24

When I read this passage I think of a bird that returns each year to build a nest in the same place. Does she use the same nest that she used last year? No, she cleans it out and brings fresh things to make a new nest. She wants to lay her eggs in a clean, fresh and unsoiled nest. That is the way we must be once we have become baptized into Christ. Our manner of living, the way we treat other people, the way we speak, even the way we think must be reborn in a spirit of newness. We are never to return to that old man. Will we stumble and sin along the way?  Yes we will, but like that mother bird that continues to refresh her nest when her hatchlings soil it, we have to return (repent) clean out that sin and start fresh once again.

So as you watch the unfolding wonders of Spring...remember Christ and the new life he has given you through his death.