Here in the Southern Hemisphere ‘Spring’ is certainly in the air. The sun is shining… the buds are blooming, bees are buzzing, birds are chirping, the days are pleasantly warmer & longer… and the air is filled with the most heavenly of scents and sounds… enlivening our natural senses, as well as our hopes and expectations regarding what’s to come this season.
During Springtime… which is the beginning of what’s known as the Wet Season’, here in South East Queensland, Australia, welcome rains bring an abundance of new growth, new life and a flurry of activity within both the plant and animal kingdoms. This year we’ve been lucky enough to have been visited by a pair of koalas… which was a real treat!
Particularly, in light of the fact that in recent time’s here in the land of OZ, Koala numbers have been steadily on the decline, due to, habitat destruction, domestic animal attacks, road kill… and the increase in severity of our Australian bushfires. So, seeing… not just one…but two Koalas, a mother and her infant, has renewed hopes that in this particular region nevertheless, the koala population is showing signs of recovery.
It’s interesting how nature’s cyclic rhythms seem to constantly remind us of the fact, that there’s always HOPE… even during the coldest and darkest of winters in life… the sun is ever-present. Bringing forth with it new life, new growth and a fresh new perspective!
Now then when thinking about the current global situation… where Covid19 restrictions have been dramatically disrupting the general rhythms of family life and nothing it seems is as it was, one could at first glance perceive these developments and experiences as being extremely negative.
However, many have attested to the contrary. In amongst the bad news, the darkness, isolation, heartache, pain and the suffering… there’s been a ray of HOPE. In that these unprecedented and trying times… have also brought to many of us the time for… reflection, the time… to be still, to reassess our daily priorities and the time to perhaps see things in a new light!
It’s interesting how we can often find our greatest lessons in life are commonly preceded by some pretty messy situations... hey, which can cause us seemingly senseless suffering. But perhaps, as suggested earlier, we shouldn’t be so quick to perceive these situations so negatively and instead see them more constructively, as being a bit like fertilizer… where we find the messy, dead and decaying things of our natural lives, can... if the truth be told, transform into something new and beautiful.
If you take a drive into the countryside at this time of year, you’ll soon spot field after field that’s been ploughed and fertilized, in preparation for the spring rains by farmers, whose hopes and expectations are high for a wonderful growing season.
Just as the spring rains bring much needed moisture to soften and condition the soil ready for sowing. The ‘living waters’ from above can penetrate parched and dry soils to help nourish and soften… spiritually the ‘good ground’ within us, in preparation to cultivate the good things of God... and to bear fruit.
It’s amazing how that everything that exists in the cosmos… including our seasons, is governed by some pretty awesome and yet to be fully understood, principles, laws, systems, processes and rhythms, which are all interconnected, conducted and powered in a way, by some even weirder fundamental forces that operate within the spaces between matter. This is the stuff that makes up apparently 99.999999999% of everything.
So then, essentially, the spaces between matter… do matter… tremendously! It’s here within the realms of the unseen, that the stuff that holds everything together exists, ensuring everything in the cosmos works somehow. Even during what we may consider to be destabilizing events, to bring about connectivity, continuity, balance and harmony.
Take the simple example of a bushfire… this type of natural disaster on the outset causes great devastation; however, it’s been found that over time the areas impacted by fires latter states are usually better than their former. Soils are enriched by ash, seeds are stimulated to germinate, thick undergrowth is cleared removing competitive plant and animal species, sunlight can reach the forest floors which encourages regrowth and so on the whole, the overall health & biodiversity of the area is improved.
Forest fires are then in actual fact... seasonally 'purposeful'... and very necessary parts of the forests ecology. In that the inbuilt responses within the ecosystem, to such an event, intrinsically seeks to counterbalance any negative side effect of the fire... and transforms them... into something positive, something new and something beautiful... there’s ‘Beauty from Ashes’!
So, periods of adversity or upheaval may then in actual fact, be the catalysts in life we need at times… to help us to unearth and to cultivate the infinite capacity for growth that God has spirited within us through the Holy Spirit.
Our lives… alas, are not without their challenges… but as we prayerfully endeavor to seek a spirited life of ‘significance’, encouraging ourselves and others to value truth… as this is what will bring real meaning into our lives, both now & forever... over what the world considers to be ‘dollar & dime successes’. Then throughout life’s ebbs and flows…
May we… have the eyes to see, unearth and discover opportunities that enrich both our lives and the lives of others…
May we… continue to blossom, flourish and grow in God’s grace and love... sowing the seeds of righteousness…
And may we… begin to recognize that life’s greatest challenges may actually be the very things we need to help us to grow.
'Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ'
- 1 Peter 1 : 6, 7 -