Seasons of Salvation

Several years ago I was standing in front of my son's high school at 'Prayer at the Poles.'  He was sitting on the ground at the foot of the flag pole, playing his guitar and leading the students in praise and worship.  The ground all around us was covered in fallen leaves.

As I looked down, just appreciating the moment, a beautiful maple leaf caught my eye.

This is not my leaf.  My leaf had three distinct points.  It was gold in the center and the color deepened to a brilliant red on each tip.  It looked like fire.  And the three points made me instantly think of the three persons of God - Creator(Father), Word (Jesus the Son), and Holy Spirit.

And God began to talk to me.  He began to show me how the four seasons speak of His plan of salvation.

The amazing thing is before 'the fall of man', there weren't four seasons.  The Word tells us that a mist watered the garden of Eden and we know from the story of Noah's flood that it had never rained before. Dr. Carl Baugh, of the Creation Museum in Texas, believes that before the flood, the earth's axis was straight up and down.  The catastrophic event of a world wide flood caused the earth's axis to tilt and caused the poles to freeze.  (more in a later post)  This was the start of the seasons, as we know them.

It's amazing to me that even as the world was being destroyed permanently by sin and the flood, God was showing us His salvation in the changing seasons.

In Autumn, the leaves become the color of fire as they die and fall to the ground.  Many Christians think of hell when they think of fire but I think of the Holy Spirit.  It's the fire of the Holy Spirit that destroys the dross and sin in our lives.  Autumn represents the fire of the Holy Spirit and the destruction of sin.

When Winter comes, the earth is covered in the white of snow.  White represents purity.  Jesus covers our sin in His righteousness and the Word tells us that we are made as white as snow.  The earth dies, just as we die to sin, and are raised up in Christ.  Winter represents Jesus covering us in His righteousness.

Spring reveals the new life we have in Christ.  Jesus says, "Behold, I make all things new."  Our old lives are gone and we become a new creature in Christ.

Summer is a season of abundant life- in God's order of the abundant life that God has for us.  We bear fruit, we are pruned, we grow.  In Christ, we have abundant LIFE.

Everything in God's creation demonstrates His divine order.  It's not an analogy - He has made all of creation to follow His design.  It then would make perfect sense that even as the earth and mankind was being destroyed by sin that His perfect plan would be illustrated for us to see!

I don't think I've ever looked at the world or the seasons the same since He's shown me this.  This year we've had the worst winter in 40 years, breaking records for snow fall and low temperatures.  Jesus told us to watch the signs and pay attention to the seasons.  I can't help thinking that in His divine order we have seen an outpouring of His righteousness like never before.

love and blessings~

 " For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." Romans 1:20