Each spring, the Lord teaches us that life and warmth follow the fall and the winter. The “fortunate fall” of man brought about spiritual and physical death (Daniel K Judd, The Fortunate Fall: Understanding the Blessings and Burdens of Adversity). These deaths, crucial to the Lord’s plan of salvation, were meant to be overcome. With the budding of the trees and flowers, God teaches us each year that life overpowers death, warmth replaces cold, and light banishes darkness. Martin Luther is credited with saying, “Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time” (Watchwords for the Warfare of Life from Dr. Martin Luther (New York: M. W. Dodd, 1869), 317).
