March 4, 2022 (Friday)
March 20 is the first day of spring in 2022. It is the date of the Vernal Equinox, and sometimes falls on March 19 or 21. It is the date when the sun appears to us to cross the equator on its way to the northern latitudes (or so it seems from our point of view). We know that calendars are based on the idea that there are 24 hours in a day, but we also know that a day on earth is not precisely 24 hours every day. Over the course of a year or so, there is a tiny difference between 24 hours and an average day. Therefore sometimes the sun is over the equator on March 19, sometimes March 20 and sometimes March 21. This year it is on March 20.
We cannot make the earth and sun reconcile their orbits and axis movements so that they agree with our calendars, so we just have to say spring begins sometimes on March 19, sometimes on March 20, and sometimes on March 21.
Anyway, I think spring is my favorite season. Baylor’s campus is loaded with trees that help cool the kids in the summer, lose their leaves in the fall, go silent and colorless in winter, and come to life again in the spring.
I recall each of the four springs when I was there as a student 70 years ago. As nature sprang back to life each year in the spring, so we who were there to see the beauty felt a new surge of life within. A new start. A new beginning. Colorful. Refreshing. Giving life a new vitality.
When we come to Christ, confessing our sins and repenting, believing in Jesus as Savior, we are born again, given a new chance, a clean slate, a fresh beginning. It’s springtime in our hearts and we want the whole world to rejoice with us. It’s a brand new life. Praise the Lord!