[Seasons: Spring IV]
Spring is resurrection. The death of the winter gives way to new life. Everywhere.
Bare, lifeless trees leaf out and green foliage returns. Buds form, blooms break open, and vibrant hues that were lulled from our memory during the long, grey winter months, return as if for the first time. The flowers that gave up to the frost of autumn, died in the early winter, but not without leaving a genetic legacy. Their seeds rise to the greet the warming sun, honoring the gifts of ultraviolet rays.
The return of life is only part of what I mean when I say that spring is resurrection.
Resurrection implies death. And death—at least the dying of something—implies former life. Baked into the meaning of resurrection is a life-death-life cycle. Resurrection as the moment life returns is a narrow understanding of the fuller meaning of the life-death-life cycle that is found universally in nature.
Seasons follow a cycle; they return the same time each year at basically the same time and to the same effect. For this reason spring is a good reminder that resurrection is not only new life, but it’s the memory of an old life lost, the darkness of death, new life, and the promise of life and death in the future.
We all experience the life-death-life cycle. Resurrection is available to us all, as we accustom ourselves to this template for new life.
