Today is the most beautiful of spring days. It’s early March, in the mid-70s, breezy and bright. Spring is announcing its return as the first of the daffodils are blooming, the earliest Spirea bushes are popping tiny white blossoms, and the leaf buds on many trees are swelling in preparation of their opening in a few weeks. We are sure to have more cold weather, and we will need it so it doesn’t get too hot too soon. I remember Easter weekend a few years ago when it was below freezing for four nights in early April. We all wore winter coats to church, a highly unusual sight here in the south, but it reminded me of my childhood in the Chicago area when we always had to wear coats and hats and gloves on Easter Sunday.

My husband told me the other day about a story he heard about life during the Depression. He said because many men did not have work, the movie theaters did a booming business as laid off workers would spend the afternoons passing the time with entertainment. Will that be true in our day, I wonder?

I do know something that will remain true that was also true in the ’20s and ’30s. Seasons will always change no matter what the experts say about global warming or cooling. It’s part of the promise God made after the flood. He said, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22).

There is renewed hope on a day like today. Being outside on a warm spring day makes one not care for a while about the woes of Washington. The hope of warmth, of green, of beauty refreshed is life-giving. Soon the heat of summer will bring time for picnics and fresh produce at our local farmers markets, followed by the return of fall with its refreshing, cool nights which signal the impending return of winter. The hope of seasonal change lifts the soul when all around the news is discouraging. The promises of God do that for us. Knowing His word is true and that we can count on that truth gives hope and encouragement for daily life. His promises are true.