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It was about a year ago, last fall. I sat in the examining chair waiting to have my eyes examined. It was my first time visiting this optometrist and I was typically nervous. I dislike doctors in general and will avoid an appointment with one if at all possible, but this was, after all, an eye appointment, what could go wrong? Well after my usual refusal to have my eyes dialated as I prefer to avoid medications if possible, I was informed that there was a somewhat suspicious picture as the doctor had looked into my eye with his otoscope and he wished to get a better look. So an interesting glaucoma test ensued. It was painless and very simple, I was instructed to look into an eye piece and click a button when a green cross appeared. Not hard, anyone could do this without too great a degree of anxiety, but I was nervous anyway or shall I say at least in a sober frame of mind. Of course I wondered, ” will he find something wrong” , ” what if this is it, glaucoma!! While the room was quiet and dim, and the technician pleasant, I, in a somewhat anxious state, peered into the eye piece and clicked the button as the green cross appeared. While this painless simple test was being performed, my mind looked at the green cross against the black background. It would flash before me, silently yet significantly. As I looked , a deeper meaning came to my mind about the green cross. The cross, a symbol of our only hope, the means by which our salvation was purchased, the symbol of the only way we will enter heaven was flashing silently before me. It struck me how important that cross is and will be in the end when we stand before our creator. What did we do with the cross? What did we do with Jesus? Did we believe on His name and receive His love gift of eternal life, through His blood shed on the cross as full payment for our sin? It is free, to all who believe and call upon His name. It is free to us, His gift to us, yet it cost Him His life to give it.The green of the cross as it flashed before me, reminded me of the green light we see in traffic signals. Green signifies GO! Free to go. Free to pass through. A green light says ” yes, enter” . The flashing green light on that great day of the Lord when all of heaven and earth shall flee away and we stand before a Holy and righteous God who will declare ” enter, free, loved, forgiven, safe, secure forever in the arms of the loving Saviour. It also struck me that it is the only manner of entrance. Good works won’t allow acceptance in that day, church membership, baptism, the Holy sacraments, our own social gospel or the many roads which lead one to worship many false gods which all lead to hell won’t give us a green light in that day. The symbol of the cross speaks of our only hope, the green color proclaims our justification, and the payment which was made on our behalf by the sinless Son of God to pay our sin debt, that we might ” Go Free”!! Nothing else will matter in that day, no false gospels or religious self righteousness will be considered or accepted. Just one question, ” Did you believe His words” Did you accept His love gift to you, the full payment for your sins, Did you hope and trust in the crosswork of Jesus Christ? If the answer is no, they will not enter in. The Bible says few will enter, because so few believe in the words of Jesus in John 6:40. “Verily, Verily I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up on the last day”

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Spring, a new season, a time when the earth breaks forth with new life, green buds break through the barren branches, flowers bloom, the earth comes alive again with new life after a time of dormancy and hard frost. We long for such a season as it brings with it the hope of change, a new chapter in life, perhaps a new beginning after a long and dormant winter. And so with it do come the seeds of time to bring forth change. I often think about how quickly the seasons go by and hope I accomplish in these seasons all that my heart longs for. The Bible tells us to number our days, and no wonder, for they slip through our fingers so quickly, as we are so transient like pilgrims passing through this world. One only need lose a loved one to realize how breathtakingly short the span of one’s life is and that the final “spring” will one day come. Thankfully because of the love of the Saviour and His saving grace towards us, we never have to fear death again, once we have put our hope in Him. For He gives us an everlasting hope that solves the biggest problem we ever had…our sin debt.

We have all sinned, the Bible says, we have all come short of the glory of God. The Bible says ” As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one.” Romans 3:10. And sin has a wage, the wage is death. Romans 6: 23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord” The good news is we can be saved by receiving the free gift of eternal life that God so graciously wants to give us by simply believing on His Son Jesus Christ. John 3: 14 and 15 gives us this blessed hope, ” And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of man must be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. This is the hope that faith in Jesus gives us. Eternal life freely given, that can never be lost, extended graciously to all those who believe on His name. Will you believe and receive the gift of eternal life from the one true God who died for you?

It’s February and the month is nearly half over, but winter in the northeast is far from done. We are in the midst of it and there are many more snow days, storms, and cold winter nights to come. Here is a sampling of my impressions of winter in New England in the villages and towns out and about in this beautiful part of the country.

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Winter is one of the reasons that I so enjoy life in New England. It is a beautiful season here in the northeast for so many reasons. My anticipation of winter is stirred in the fall as the leaves turn and and the weather gets cooler. The days grow short, the nights grow long. Winter is coming and with it so many changes and enchantments to the mind and eyes. Animals and plants prepare for winter, storing food and going into a dormant state, while people store up wood and put up food to keep warm and well fed all winter long as they transition indoors. Winter is a time for driving away the chill by the wood stove, watching beautiful snowflakes fall from a gray sky, and quiet reflection as the landscape changes with the seasons and the mood of this time of year. I’ve lived in several different states out in the southwest and midwest, but the season of winter in New England is like no place else I have ever lived. The endless white landscape, the rugged brown trees reaching up to the sky in barren expression, the cold wind and the beautiful storms that come and with them bring the exquisite collection of crystal white snowflakes across the desolate hills and mountainsides breed a warmness inside than charms one’s soul. Winter is a time for deep thinking, preparation for renewal and change which only the promise of spring could bring forth, a time to get in touch with our greatest longings and put forth in each New Year those greatest ambitions and desires that back in the late of the fall were nothing more than notions. It is a time of quiet and stillness where we slow down and take in all the activity of the previous year and look forward to all that the New Year beckons us to in hope and aspiration.

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