Springtime and Easter

Easter is one of those bitter-sweet celebrations that makes it difficult to fully appreciate. There is joy, but also tragedy. There is victory, but at an awful cost. There is life, but death comes first.

Although Spring arrives later in Sutherland than it does in more southerly parts of Britain, the green shoots of Spring are finally well and truly visible. The early morning sunshine now shines above Meall nan Clach Ruadha, down onto the village of Tongue, instead of hiding behind the hill until halfway through the morning. The snowdrops and crocuses are long gone and the earliest daffodils are now beginning to shrivel under the brightening skies.

Yesterday, the morning sunshine was brightening up the Moine peatlands across the mirror-like Kyle of Tongue, reflecting back to us upside-down across the still clear water, along with the puffy white clouds in the clear blue sky. Today, down in the village, we saw the Horse Chestnut trees in full bloom. The leaves on the trees are bursting forth. St Andrew's church, down the hill from the manse, is beginning to disappear as the intervening trees green up in preparation for the summer sunshine.

The countryside is alive with birdsong, and before long the acrobatic swallows will be back in town! We have already seen the bats fluttering and diving around the manse in the evening skies. Even the tourists are beginning to re-appear, in their motorhomes, or sport cars, or on their motorbikes, or even bicycles!

Spring-time is a time of new life. And so is Easter. Those parts of our lives which we thought God could never reach, are suddenly breathed into life by his tender love. Hurts are healed, wounds are washed, scars are softened, disabilities are dissolved, and we are made whole.

Yet our human bodies do not survive for ever. There comes a day for all of us when the sands of time are exhausted and we reach the end of our days. In this past week one of our number has gone to meet his Maker. Today we celebrated his life, and renewed the bonds of family love which bind us together in love. We have opened ourselves to the loving comfort of God's Holy Spirit, and we have thanked Him for the man we once knew.

Jesus shows us the way to God. As He said Himself, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We cannot stand far off and model our lives on His life. Only in His company, in His presence, and with His Spirit, can we follow Him and journey with Him, through the valleys of life and death, until we come to his Home where Our Father awaits us. Will you travel with Him and enter in?