Philip’s Focus

The Groundhog Needs to Talk to the Farmer

Lead Pastor

Dr. Philip McVay philip@shalimar-umc.org

Spring is here! Yea! Long afternoons of Sunshine are back! Yea! We had an artic blast on the Emerald Coast! Boo! As Spring has sprung, we also know Easter is just around the corner.

My weather sources tell me we still have one more “cool snap” before Easter. I do not know if our resident church member meteorologist Dave Biggars would agree with one more cold spell but I’m confident it will happen. How do I know? I trust the farmer not the Groundhog.

The Groundhog sometimes gets it right on February 2 about how much longer winter will last; but it has been my experience that the farmer gets it right. Let me tell you a backstory!

Many years ago, I learned while a graduate student at Candler School of Theology that the date of Easter is determined by the moon. Easter is set each year on the Sunday after the first full moon two days after the equinox. Easter moves around each year because of the Moon. The earliest date Easter can be set is March 22 and as late as April 25th. It is fascinating to me that we can know the date of Easter hundreds of years from now! I like the symbolism to know the dates to celebrate Christ’s Birth and Resurrection are set until Christ comes again!

Well anyway, after I learned this fact of how Easter is set, I had a conversation with a farmer the very next week. I was so eager to tell him what I had just learned about Easter. Afterwards, he said… “thanks for that information all I know is that is always gets cold right before Easter.” And then I made a mistake… I challenged the farmer. I said… “this is not necessarily so because Easter can be as late as April 25th. And it does not always get cold in late April!” The farmer was unimpressed. “Nope…it always gets cold right before Easter.”

Through the past decades since this conversation, I have watched the weather right before Easter with curiosity. Whether Easter falls early or late, I have found the farmer is almost always right. So, I trust the farmer more than the Groundhog!

And one more thing is surer than the weather! We are going to celebrate Christ’s resurrection! Spring brings warmth, sunshine, and the greatest message of all Christ’s resurrection! This forecast I am 100 % sure about!

We hope you are making plans now to be at Shalimar UMC on Easter Sunday! And the upcoming Sundays and all the Holy Week services! By the way…the farmer knew the Savior and this good news of Jesus too!

Week of March 26, 2023