My daffodils are almost gone – ready to go asleep for another year! I do love the beauty of spring. Yes, even the spring rains! Suddenly (so it seems), you see flowers popping up their heads from their winter rest, and then WOW, their colors burst forth!
Seemingly overnight, I see this happening year after year with my forsythia bush from my kitchen window. And so beautiful when it is full of its rich, yellow blossoms screaming – 
With spring and its beauty also comes the time when we pause and celebrate our Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection – Easter.
When my children were younger and then with my granddaughters, I remember gathering together for this special day. Yes, we colored Easter eggs and hunted for them in the yard or house, depending on the weather, followed by a delicious family dinner.
Before enjoying our delicious ham dinner, we walked through our Savior’s last week on this earth using a set of Resurrection Eggs. Each of us opened our egg and retold a portion of His journey during that week. So many wonderful and glorious memories!
My theme for 2022 is Living in the Radiance Presence of the Lord. I have thought a lot about what it means for me as I walk the road of Alzheimer’s with my husband. The parable of the old and new wineskins has been incredibly insightful for this journey.
“No one puts new wine into old wineskins that have lost their elasticity; otherwise, the wineskins burst, and the fermenting wine spills, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, so both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:17)
How does this translate into living in the radiant presence of the Lord?
What does it have to do with the arrival of spring?
As my husband forgets old skills and routines, I need to learn new skills and new ways. To accomplish this task, I choose not to force the old of yesterday into the new of today. I will not force today into yesterday’s mold.
I am often guilty of bringing the difficulties of yesterday into the newness of today, forgetting that God makes all things new – including today!
Forcing the old of yesterday into the newness of today causes me to limp through my day and I have accomplished exactly what Jesus said would happen if we put new wine in old wineskins – both are destroyed and lost.
Application:
Both the lessons of yesterday and today’s new and unique opportunities and discoveries are wasted.
“Do not remember the former things or ponder the things of the past. “Listen carefully; I am about to do a new thing; now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19
Because of the Lord’s loving kindnesses, we are not consumed, Because His tender compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great and beyond measure is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion and my inheritance,” says my soul; “Therefore, I have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.” Lamentations 3:22-24
I am currently reading books by A. W. Tozer. In his timeless writing In Pursuit of God, he gives this fantastic picture journey of the blessing and joy of our Easter celebration resulting in a daily celebration we have the opportunity to experience.
“The interior journey of the soul from the wilds of sin into the enjoyed Presence of God is beautifully illustrated in the Old Testament tabernacle. The returning sinner first entered the outer court, where he offered a blood sacrifice on the brazen altar and washed in the laver that stood near it. Then he passed through a veil into the holy place where no natural light could come, but the golden candlestick spoke of Jesus, the Light of the World streaming its soft glow. There also was the shewbread to tell of Jesus, the Bread of Life, and the altar of incense, a figure of unceasing prayer.
Though the worshiper had enjoyed so much, still he had not yet entered the presence of God. Another veil separated from the Holy of Holies where above the mercy seat dwelt the very God Himself in frightening and glorious manifestation. While the tabernacle stood, only the high priest could enter there, and that but once a year, with blood which he offered for his sins and sins of the people. It was this last veil that was rent when our Lord gave up His spirit on Calvary (John 19:30), and the sacred writer explains that this rending of the veil opened the way for every worshiper in the world to come by the new and living way straight into the divine Presence. (Matthew 27:51; Hebrews 10:19-23)
Everything in the New Testament accords with this Old Testament picture. Ransomed men need no longer pause in fear to enter the Holy of Holies. God wills that we should push on into His presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held; it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day.
To enter the Presence is a spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and God is in us. God is Spirit, and only the spirit of a man can know Him. In the deep spirit of man, the fire must glow, or our love is not the true love of God.”
