Spring (05/03/25)
Nature is a parable of human life. Think of the parable of
springtime. What do we love about the spring? It means the end of winter. New warmth comes from the sun. Life stirs in nature. Trees, shrubs, and flowers bud and blossom. We see a soft beauty in the various shades of emerging foliage. The atmosphere is moist and full of the promise of new life. Surely, there is something special about spring for each one of us.
Here is the parable: Springtime in nature is a season brought about by the temperate balancing of the sun's elements of heat and light. When there is a balance of love with our wisdom in life, it will result in a new fruitfulness, a human springtime.
It is always springtime in the heavens because the angels constantly receive the love and wisdom of the Lord in equal measure… The Lord constantly desires to provide this state of spring.
Therefore, He appears constantly in heaven's sun at a middle altitude.
The most exciting states of our life are initiated by a marriage of our loves with
wisdom, a marriage of our ideas with purpose. When we have a plan and the means to carry it out, we sense a delight that is exhibited in the blossoming of trees and flowers. On a deeper level, our life becomes fruitful through the process of regeneration. The blossoming of all things in spring and the gradual development of the blossoms even to the fruit, from the first warm month to the last, represent the progress of human regeneration. Springtime heralds and portrays the promise of our new
spiritual life.
Spring also represents heavenly peace. "Peace in heaven is like spring on earth," we read (Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven 5662). Surely, as we
bask in the warm atmosphere of earth in the springtime and contemplate the Lord's creative forces at work, we can be led to feel a sense of peace. Winter's hardships have ended; the spring brings new promise. It is a time of hope and beauty.
In our life of regeneration, we pass through the winter of temptation, coming at last to a spring state-a state of true peace: not an idle peace or inactivity. Nature bears testimony that spring is a busy time. Peace is not a state of nothing happening. Peace comes to us in that rare happy state when we know what is right and love to do it. We are busy and content in heavenly [service].
"For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring
forth before all nations" (Isa. 61:11) - NCL Editorial 2007
