Count Your Blessings #47 – Spring is coming

I know lots of people who have a favourite season. It is sometimes Summer because of the long warm days; sometimes it’s Autumn because of the colours; sometimes it’s Winter because of cold crisp days; for others it’s Spring because of the way it burst into life. My favourite season always seems to be the one that we are about to enter into. Perhaps I don’t actually have a favourite season and the thing that I love is the change of the seasons.

Most of us have different ways of identifying the seasons too, for me it’s normally the garden. Over the last few weeks my small patch of land has been telling me that it’s ready for Spring. Seems a bit of a strange thing to say considering we haven’t even exited January yet but that’s what it’s saying. The picture of the Snow-drops was taken today, there are some even further on but I couldn’t get a decent shot of them. They aren’t the only thing growing either, everything seems to be popping through the ground or shooting leaves.

It’s clearly time for a transition and transition brings transformation. There’s absolutely nothing I can do to halt it, it’s coming. When we were kids we used to play hide-and-seek (actually we still do, but that’s a story for another day) and the person who was ‘on’ used to count and when they had finished they would shout – COMING, READY OR NOT. I feel a bit like the garden is currently gently whispering – coming, ready or not – but soon it will be shouting – COMING, READY or NOT.

The garden is telling me how small and powerless I really am. I can type words on this computer and people around the world can see them, but that’s nothing compared to the changing of the seasons. It happens every year and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I know my place.

It reminds me of the story of King Canute who tried to stop the sea from coming in. It depends on which version of the story you read as to whether it was Canute trying to teach his people a lesson or whether he was just completely arrogant. Either way the lesson is clear – it doesn’t matter how powerful we are we can’t stand against the seas.

There once was a king in Babylon called Nebuchadnezzar he was a mighty ruler – powerful and rich. One day he had a dream and it troubled him. Nebuchadnezzar called for Daniel to try and interpret the dream, after some time God revealed the meaning to him. The result of the dream was that after his death the great king’s kingdom would be replaced by something much smaller and inferior. Everything that Nebuchadnezzar had worked for would be torn down and there was nothing he could do about it.

Daniel gave praise where praise was due:

“Praise the name of God forever and ever, for he alone has all wisdom and power.

He determines the course of world events; he removes kings and sets others on the throne. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars. 

He reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness, though he himself is surrounded by light.

I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors, for you have given me wisdom and strength. You have told me what we asked of you and revealed to us what the king demanded.”

We might not be able to stop the seasons, move the seas or change history, but the dream that Daniel interpreted had a promise in it too, a promise that was fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross and continues to be fulfilled today:

“During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed; no one will ever conquer it. It will shatter all these kingdoms into nothingness, but it will stand forever. That is the meaning of the rock cut from the mountain by supernatural means, crushing to dust the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold.”

Daniel 2