“Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.” II Corinthians 5:5 NAS
When there comes the time between the seasons, when autumn’s last bright leaf has fallen, when winter’s pristine snowfall is no more. When the last of summer’s warm rays changes to a chill shadowed wind. These are the times when we must stand in hope. Hope of what comes next. I believe that God created the change of seasons to teach us to hope.
Hope is the most basic human instinct. Without hope, we have no will to go on. Without hope, we are listless and undirected. The time in the life of the disciples, between when Jesus was nailed to a cross and hung in derision for all the world to scorn, must have felt like the barrenness of winter before the spring rain. The time after He ascended into heaven, when He sent them to the Upper Room to pray and wait for Him to come to them; to wait for the Spirit to come to them must have felt like the last bit of spring, before the blaze of a hot summer sun.
“Wait for Me there. I will come to you there.”
There are times in the seasons of our lives, when our hope grows dim. The bleakness of our situations can pull our hearts downwards, our glances fall more often upon our trying situations than upon the face of the One Who loves us best. “Why so downcast, O my soul. Put your hope in God.”
Jesus had many names for the Holy Spirit: Teacher, Comforter, the One who convicts the world of sin and of righteousness, Guide. And it is in the promise of the Spirit, that Jesus was able to fulfill His promise to us that He would never, ever leave us or forsake us. By His Holy Spirit, He is released into His Omnipresence in such a way that all of mankind, everywhere can feel His touch, His power, His love, at the same time. Such is the magnificent Mystery of life in the Holy Spirit.
As we enter once more into the Lenten season, where we prepare our hearts to contemplate the great sufferings of Jesus on our behalf through the Passion of the Cross, we are also preparing ourselves to celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost…the birthday of the Church universal!
This past September, Dan had the blessing of prayer-walking down the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Suffering in the streets of Jerusalem. He was able to see each of the Stations of the Cross there, and fully take in each part of that time when Christ, in human form, became sin, so that we could be saved, healed, cleansed and delivered. So that we could be presented faultless and blameless before the Throne of Grace. Cleansed by the blood of the Lamb of God. A worthy vessel for the presence of God by the Holy Spirit. He made us worthy. This is the mystery. This is the divine Gift.
Friend, if you find yourself in a dark and dreary, in between season. Hang on. Hang in there. Surely, He will come to you, like the rain.
~ Debbie Ecker
