“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.” Galatians 5:13
Spring has sprung! Well… sort of? We’ll see how the weather cooperates. Spring, for me, has always brought a feeling of freedom. The weather starts to warm up and on the occasional warm days the furnace gets turned off and the windows open for the first time in months. The fresh air is sweet, and the sound of the birds chirping is welcoming. I begin dreaming of being able to sit out on the deck again, enjoying a cold drink with the warm sun on my back.
While there are many things to look forward to in spring, there are two words that are always bittersweet when they come to mind: Spring Cleaning. The spring-cleaning list can be incredibly long and arduous. It is filled with surfaces to be dusted and wiped down, windows to be scrubbed inside and out, and garden beds that have been covered in snow for the past four months to be raked. I say it’s bittersweet because while it may take a while to check off the whole list, the feeling when you’re done is incredible.
Apart from the freeing feeling of a clean house, I also feel a sense of freedom this time of year from another source. The season of Lent, to me, has often felt like a cold, long winter. The Alleluias are gone, the music becomes somber and reflective, and the weight of depression from my sins seems to feel extra heavy. While Lent is important and necessary, I always look forward in anticipation for the “spring” of the church year.
Easter brings with it a sense of freedom that is bliss personified. Christ is alive! He has taken spring cleaning to a whole new level and washed away all our sin forever. We are free from sin and death! What is more freeing than that? There is nothing bittersweet about this because there is nothing we have to do. Christ paid it all. He washed us clean with his blood and we are free forever. I pray that the “spring” of Easter fills your hearts with an everlasting joy and freedom won for you on the cross.
From Pastor Rothfuss, Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 2, April 2022
