LONGING FOR

Iam longing for spring. It has been over 13 years since my family and I have lived through a Canadian Winter. During these years we have been serving with the church in the 14 countries of the Southern Asia-Pacific division as International Service Employees of the General Conference what we used to call missionaries. We returned to Canada in September and are experiencing an Alberta winter along with everyone here.

While based in the tropical countries of Cambodia, Timor-Leste, and the Philippines, the hot season would have my Canadian body sweating 24 hours a day. During those seasons, I would remember winter with a certain nostalgia delightful, yet selective, memories of skating, tobogganing, building snowmen, skiing, winter camping, gentle snowflakes, northern lights, and hot chocolate around a warm fire all played in my mind. Twice during these years my family enjoyed visiting Canada during winter. Of course, visiting winter is much different than living through it. Now we enjoy both the fun activities as well as scraping windshields, shovelling snow, walking the dog when it is -40°C, painfully defrosting fingers/toes/ nose, occasionally pulling a car from a snowbank, and all the other realities of winter. Now I am longing for spring.

The vibrancy and restoration of a spring is experienced in most places in the world albeit differently in various climates. In tropical climates, the shift from the

BY PASTOR WESLEY SZAMKO

hot season to the rainy season is eagerly anticipated as the ever-building heat finally breaks with the refreshing rains. Life emerges from baked dust. Here in Canada, the thaw finally prevails after one or two last fleeting blizzards. Life emerges from the frozen winter-land.

Ellen White describes spring in the Israelite nation during biblical times in their first month, the month of Abib (end of March/beginning of April) as people came to Jerusalem for Passover. “The cold of winter was past, the latter rain had ended, and all nature rejoiced in the freshness and beauty of springtime. The grass was green on the hills and valleys, and wildflowers everywhere brightened the fields. The moon, now approaching full, made the evening delightful. Throughout the land, bands of pilgrims were making their way toward Jerusalem… all turned their steps toward the place where God's presence was revealed.” (Patriarchs and Prophets, 537-538) She goes on to quote Psalms 48:1-2, 118:19, 121:1-2, and 122:1 to describe the people’s joyous songs as they praised God for His glorious salvation from above and having been permitted to enter into the gates of the King’s Holy City into His house. There is something here greater than actual history.

This experience seems to parallel future events leading up to the return of Jesus. God’s people press through the bitterest of spiritual winters of an increasingly sinful world with strength from the former rain of the Holy Spirit. At the coldest, most unbearable point, those who have grown through the former rain are now prepared by the latter rain for both the final proclamation of the third angel’s message and to stand through the last events of Earth’s history (Latter Day Events, 183). It is the latter rain that “revives and strengthens the people of God” as we endure the time of Jacob’s trouble, the close of probation, and the final plagues (Signs of the Times, November 27, 1879, par. 10). “Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month” (Joel 2:23 NKJV). Finally, as Jesus appears, God’s children are changed “in the twinkling of an eye.” (1 Cor. 15:52) They, along with all creation, are finally restored to what God created them to be in God’s eternal spring as we are gathered rejoicing into the Kingdom.

I am longing for THAT spring. It seems this world’s spiritual winter has grown harder with each succeeding generation and with each succeeding year. Post COVID-19 social reintegration and polarization, intense global inflation, a resurrected cold war, and the recent earthquakes devastating people in Turkey and Syria are a few of the reminders that we are still in the time of winter. I am ready for spring to be at home in the heavenly Kingdom. Yet there remains a work to be done.

As God continuously engages in His mission of restoration, He has given us a mission as well. We are to be His witnesses, living and speaking as a revelation of God so people can see Him. We are to be His disciple-makers, teaching others what we have learned about being restored.

As we trudge through what remains of winter, let it be a reminder that spring is coming. Let us persevere as we pray for the Holy Spirit, study God’s word, and engage in our mission. One day soon we will hear the voice of Jesus speaking to us as to His bride:

“Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away. For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come, And the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth her green figs, And the vines with the tender grapes Give a good smell.

Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away!”

Song of Solomon 2:10-13 (NKJV)