Create in me

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me… Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.  [from Psalm 51]

          The calendar says springtime, but summer has come early to the Bluegrass.  We’ve been enjoying record-setting temps in the 80s for several days, topping off the very mild winter that has just passed.  Flowers and trees are blooming early, grass is growing, new foals are dozing in the sun.  Nature is wildly beautiful right now. 

          As we move through Lent, I remember this passage:  Create in me a clean heart, O God.

          I need a clean heart.  Not just during Lent, but all the time.  I need to put away old ways of thinking and acting that aren’t good or helpful.  I need to have my heart renewed with joy, peace, goodness.  I need character restoration, soul rejuvenation, heart regalvanization.  

          Luckily, this spring, I have to go no farther than my own window to see the perfect metaphor for renewal.  The world is partly recreated each spring by the miracle of newness. 

          As plants spring into being from dry seeds, as winter comes to an end and spring explodes into visible life, as sunlight warms the earth into activity—even so is God able to engender new life in our souls.

          May God re-create in you.

© Melissa Bane Sevier, 2012