“What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning…”
Gerard Manley Hopkins
If the old adage is anything to go by: “Ash before oak, we’re in for a soak; Oak before ash we’re in for a splash” then it looks like a soak as I’ve seen ash buds beginning to break as I write this at the start of April. This is one of the many signs of spring which we enjoy, the breaking buds that is, not so much the rain!
Spring for many of us comes too suddenly. I often start out well thinking I’ll enjoy those flowers, look for those returning migrants, look for frogs in action and the resulting spawn or a combination of all of them and before I know it I’ve missed all the new life and we’re into summer.
There is something different about this season of green with all its juice and joy as quoted above, that stirs a longing in us – well it does in me! I have an urge to gambol like a lamb, run and jump and go a bit crazy, well maybe when no one’s looking! The season can overwhelm us and we don’t know quite where to put ourselves.
As some of you may have already read in this blog I’m trying to work on a sit spot, which is for a naturalist, a place to sit and soak up what is happening in a particular specific spot. What’s recommended in doing this, is to go as regularly as you can, to note the changes, building up a picture of a place by using your senses. Not easy in our busy world. I also do it to try and connect with God. Combining the two for me is important, not always easy to put into words. I do come away refreshed but it does take effort to engage in this way.
I write that here as a way of saying to myself and you the reader that even though this season of spring seems rapid and passes us by quickly at times, you can enjoy it slowly doing something like this – just sitting and being. Maybe spring is so named for another reason as it’s like the other kind of spring, coiled up with so much energy to be released when you press on it. I like the idea of pressing on the season of spring and seeing how much more we can enjoy and receive from it!
All that talk of pressing has put me in mind of Philippians 3:14 (NKJV) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. In verse 12 of the same passage Paul writes “…pressing on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me” (NLT). Another version (NET) uses the word strive for pressing. In this instance striving is a positive thing. We need to put the past behind us though as we can be burdened by it. We can only live in the present and engage what is happening here and now. I am often reminded of this as I might miss out on something important if I live dreaming and that does happen!
The American naturalist Jon Young says of his sit spot that it “had more to do with his development as a human being, not to mention as a naturalist, than anything else.” There is a parallel here with the devotion that this man has and that of our devotion to Christ spoken of in Philippians 3.
Spring is a time to celebrate the new birth that we have in Jesus. Contemplate this new life as you go outside this spring. Try and capture some of that freshness and newness that you had when you first heard of Jesus especially those of us who’ve been on the journey longer it is good to be reminded of where we have come from and that it is not really anything to do with us. Like Dave Cole preached back in March the ministry we’re involved in is not our ministry but Christ’s. The life that is in us has been given to us as a gift. And that goes for respecting and appreciating all that the Creator has made.
NB. Look out for the next Forest Church activity at the end of May/beginning of June where I will endeavour to help us to read the nature of summer of an evening in a local area, hopefully including listening to and watching bats, nightjars, woodcock, and enjoying the ambience.
Postscript – watch this space: there will be an opportunity for some practical conservation in July, where we can care for creation directly and meet with like-minded people at Fox Corner Nature Reserve. Let me know if interested.