I grew up in farm country, beautiful farm country. The lands all around me turned seasonally from green to golden, then brown to snowy white. The lands turned from bare to tall, then back to bare again. The Easter hymn written by John Crum in the 1920s picks up the cycle of a farmer’s fields and the words of Jesus himself. He wrote,
Forth Christ came at Easter like the risen grain, he that for three days in the grave had lain; Raised from the dead, my living Lord is seen, Love is come again like wheat arising green.
When our hearts are wintry, grieving or in pain, your touch can call us back to life again; Filed of our hearts that dead and bare have been: Love is come again like wheat arising green.
The good news of Jesus is not only good new FOR Jesus. It is good news FOR US. Because Christ died and rose ”love is come to us” and “our hearts are touched and changed.” He rises like “the green blades” of spring breaking through the soil. He rises…and by the miracle of faith and the grace of God…we rise with him to newness of life that only love can bring.
