I am coming to believe that there is no greater metaphor for redemption than the arrival of spring. I can feel spring slowly coming to southern Manitoba. The air is losing its sharp edge. I can hear birds chirping when I start my car in the morning. Soon the snow and ice will melt away, and the little sprigs of grass will, with great effort, push through the hard soil. I can feel life returning.
After roughly five months of winter, I am longing for the warmth and the sense of renewal that I know is coming. Creation is about to be re-birthed and today I find myself crawling out of my skin in anticipation. "For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now" (Romans 8:22). I love that. The earth is groaning, travailing, and longing for spring; for redemption.
I find that there no better way for me to picture humanity's longing for redemption by God than the way in which these prisoners of winter await spring. Don't I want a second chance? Don't I want rebirth from the darkness of myself? Don't I desire to break through my hard, earthy soil and lift myself toward the divine, the sacred? Don't we all want that?
Whatever your view of eschatology might be, I believe that, in some way, God will redeem his people and his earth. How can a creator not want to restore his creation? How can the plants, rocks, trees, and grass not want the warmth of spring to fall on them again?
I have heard it said that the creation reflects the creator. If that's true, then our Spring is coming. Our seemingly eternal winter will end. This story ends in redemption. With soil cracking wide open, green shoots bursting forth, sunlight beating down, rainfall soaking the earth, and the sacred swallowing up the profane.
