Lausanne World Pulse – PUBLISHER'S MEMO – In the Deep Midwinter Comes the Presence and Promise of God

By Lon Allison

When All Is Gloomy…
It is deep winter in the United States. Cities like Boston, where Doug Birdsall, our co-publisher lives, and Chicago, where I reside, are experiencing a very cold and snowbound winter. Days are short; nights are long. Trees are stripped of their leaves and flowers are hidden. It is terribly gloomy.

In the earth’s northern hemisphere, the cold and repressive darkness of winter coincide to the church calendar. It is the season of Lent and as such, we examine our lives, opening our minds and hearts to God’s pure gaze.

The Holy Spirit mercifully tells us again that we are dust, that our lives are cold and dark. We remember that at our best we are not good enough and at our worst we are worse than we thought we could be. The culmination of our sinful lives is seen in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, where once long ago, other evil people killed the Son of God. The weight of all this nearly crushes our souls.

And We Can Bear No More…
But then, when we can bear no more, comes the spring. The grip of winter loosens, warmth and rains replace cold and ice. Trees break out in glorious fashion with white blossoms, red berries, and a thousand shades of green. Tulips of bright color dot the landscape. And in our souls blows a trumpet, declaring not the dirge of a death, but rather coronation of life—Jesus Christ’s life, risen and glorified.

He is risen! And the grace of God pours forth like a river bounding down a mountain side as the snow melts. A just God declares sin is forgiven, and his resurrection presence and promise dispels life’s gloom.

We have chosen to remember and reflect on the Resurrection of Christ in this issue of Lausanne World Pulse. For readers from the southern hemisphere, my apologies for using the cold and darkness of winter as a metaphor of the darkness of sin and our need for something to save us. Yet, I know you can follow the thought.