Anna Resurget

On Sunday’s post I mentioned a tune I had recently heard by the jazz pianist Joel Weiskopf. After I wrote that, I found the lyrics for the song and wanted put them here. If a Christian did not write this lyric, then here is surely an example of common grace.

When lonely feelings chill
The meadows of your mind,
Just think if Winter comes,
Can Spring be far behind?

Beneath the deepest snows,
The secret of a rose
Is merely that it knows
You must believe in Spring!

Just as a tree is sure
Its leaves will reappear;
It knows its emptiness
Is just the time of year

The frozen mountain dreams
Of April’s melting streams,
How crystal clear it seems,
You must believe in Spring!

You must believe in love
And trust it’s on its way,
Just as the sleeping rose
Awaits the kiss of May

So in a world of snow,
Of things that come and go,
Where what you think you know,
You can’t be certain of,
You must believe in Spring and love

Today marks another year since Anna’s death in 2008. The days and weeks and months begin to string together over time but markers continue to arise to remind you of your loss. I say at this time every year that navigating spring time is a challenge and a blessing. It is an interesting period of time in that we are remembering Anna’s birth and death and usually right in the middle we celebrate Easter and remember the resurrection of our Lord. But it is not only that we are remembering Jesus’ resurrection, bat we are looking ahead to the resurrection of all followers of Christ.

Another marker that reveals itself during this period is the beginning of spring. God grants us each year this time when dead things come to life. Roots buried deep under the earth whose tops had long withered and died from the winter’s frost and freeze now have new life coursing through them. Seeds planted in the soil die and spring to life in flowers and food.

I recently became acquainted with the music of a man named Joel Weiskopf. He is a jazz pianist and a believer. I was struck by one of his compositions entitled “You Must Believe in Spring.” Rather, I wasn’t so much struck by the tune as by the title. It captured for me in just a few words the feeling I have each year at this time as I watch my garden grow. Spring becomes a sign, if you will, of the resurrection of the dead. It is not a period of time that I believe in. It is not the fecundity of the earth in which I believe. No, it is more than all of these things and yet none of them. We believe in the Lord of the resurrection and we have hope in the future resurrection which he has promised to those who believe. It is the springtime and its fecundity that is a sign of those things in which we hope.

We pray that Christ would return soon. Come, Lord Jesus. Anna resurget.