I feel there’s an expectation for people to love this season of Spring. Flowers, new life, hope, Easter - all that.

It’s actually not my favorite time of year.

Allergies are bad. Heat is coming (We’re not fans of heat in this family). The weather tends to be weird and unpredictable.

That said there is always something magical about the turning of seasons, each one that reminding us of ways God is dealing with his people.

Winter is a more hopeful time than we think. Life ends in death and life comes from death. Or at least in spite of death. It’s the way. Fall, when things are evidently dying, is the most hopeful season of all to me. We won’t talk about Summer. Winter carries the most mystery and hope for me.

Of course the place I currently call home doesn’t have the distinctive winters of places I’ve lived in the past. South Carolina gets her seasons confused sometimes.

But Spring is the rhythm of a new beginning. Any way you look at it.

And new beginnings are always something to be grateful for.

We experience newness daily. The daily rhythm of sleeping and waking is a reminder for us. When eyes first open in the morning there’s a half-dream state half-wakeful moment. It’s uncertain. Was I just experiencing reality? Was I just hallucinating? Was I dead? Am I now awake and alive? I can breathe. I can open my eyes. It’s a daily spring.

It’s a daily new beginning.

So the day begins the same. At least for me. I’m usually the first one up in my home. There’s a routine that involves dogs and coffee.

Then it’s to a cluttered yet comfortable wooden desk, prayer — and this simple declaration of faith:

To whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life,
And we have believed and have come to know
That you are the Holy One of God.

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ
King of endless glory.

That’s my daily spring. It’s not always my favorite time of the day. But it’s a necessary and hopeful new beginning.

And the Christian life is all about new beginnings.

I’m grateful for the rhythms - both daily and seasonal - that remind us of this.