Spring and the Power of New Life

By Pastor Tony Cervero

Shortly after the armistice of World War I, Dr. Donald Barnhouse visited the battlefields of Belgium. In the first year of the war, the surrounding area around the city of Mons was the scene of the great British retreat. For miles west of the city the roads were lined with artillery, tanks, trucks, and other war material that the enemy had abandoned in their hasty flight.

When Dr. Barnhouse was there, it was a lovely spring day; the sun was shining; not a breath of wind was blowing. As he walked along, examining the war material, he noticed that leaves were falling from the great trees that arched along the road. He caught a leaf as it was flittering around on its descent to the ground. He pressed the leaf in his fingers, and it disintegrated. He looked up curiously and saw several other leaves falling from the trees. Remember: it was spring - not autumn. Nor was there wind to blow off the leaves. These leaves had outlived the winds of autumn and the frosts of winter.

Yet they were falling that day, seemingly without cause. Then Dr. Barnhouse realized why. The most potent force of all was causing them to fall. IT was spring; the sap was beginning to run. New life was beginning to push through from within. From down beneath the dark earth, the roots were taking life and sending it along trunk, branch and twig. It continued to send new life until the new life expelled every bit of deadness or dead life that remained from the previous year.

What the fire of war could not burn off and the winds of winter could not freeze off - the power of new life cleansed.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." (2Cor. 5:17) As spring 2010 comes into full swing, let the flow of Spiritual new life cleanse the debris that sin and self has left behind. Only a new flow of new life can bring a new cleansing. Isn't it time for a spiritual Spring cleaning?

Comments