The Secret Power of Spring Rain

Okay, the calendar may say Spring, but Nature has a mind of its own and treated us overnight to a cruel dump of wet, unwelcome snow.

Yesterday I took pictures of crocus shoots triumphantly announcing the new season. Today they’re buried in white.

Having endured 5 months of winter, I’m not about to let a spring blizzard get me down. I know what’s coming. I’m Canadian. I’m a man of hope. Still, I’m tired of winter and itching to get my hands dirty in the soil again, to participate in the annual miracle.

In the land of the Bible, the spring rains are vital for bringing the winter growing season to its climax. The ‘early rain’ falls in late October and softens the summer-hardened soil for planting. January brings the peak rainfall, but most vital is the spring rain, also called ‘the latter rain’, just ahead of the heat that plumps the harvest. No rains, no harvest.

Hosea sees this annual phenomenon as a metaphor for God. Just as the spring rains bring renewal to the earth, Hosea says, God longs to bring renewal to our lives.

There are winter seasons in the soul when we desperately need renewal. When love grows cold, vision goes dormant, songs go silent. When you’re in a slump, de-vitalized and dry and doubt settles in like snow.

Hosea knew the humiliation of personal winter. After three children, his wife froze him out and left him to become a prostitute. Numb with shame and grief, Hosea drilled deep into the faithfulness of God and found the courage and grace to seek out his wife and woo her back. He paid off her pimps and renewed her honor and dignity. Together they re-discovered the essence of Spring – the depth of God’s love and the healing of their fragile marriage.

Photo Courtesy of Caroline Watts

Hosea sang to her,
"Come, let us return to the LORD.
He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us;
he will bind up our wounds."  Hosea 6:1 NIV

His song reverberated to his whole community. As a pastor and prophet Hosea saw how estranged his whole society was from God and he urged them to renew their vows, to acknowledge Yahweh again.

"Oh, that we might know the LORD!
Let us press on to know him.
He will respond to us as surely as the dawn
or the coming of rains in early spring.”  Hosea 6:3 NLT

Snow Crocus

God comes to us faithfully as the seasons, faithful as the dawn. 'Count on it,' says Hosea, 'God longs to re-vitalize your hope, your vision, your faith like the spring rain.' Let God’s initiative rouse your response. Pursue him; press into that quest like a hunter pursues prey, the way golfers pursue excellence (or at lest par), the way lovers pursue their beloved.

The warming sun and spring rains eventually thaw the frozen ground. The earth passively absorbs the rain, but that rain activates the living things - roots, seeds and bulbs lying in the dark earth. Roused to life, they exert themselves with vigor to be all they were made to be.

And, as Jesus said, you're worth a lot more to God than they are! That’s the sure promise of God and the invitation of Hosea to us this first week of Spring, no matter how the weather comes down.