Spring fever at our house takes the shape of intense yearning to go swimming outdoors. The grandchildren can hardly stay away from the pool and end up with their feet, legs and arms dipped into 52 degree water and assure me that “It isn’t really cold at all.” By August they have moved on to other pursuits. Swimming is still fun, but not at all urgent, and if the water is even cool they lose interest quickly.

The first full immersion of the year prefigures the summer with all its pleasures. It conjures up the past and promises for the days ahead , beside delivering sheer pleasure in the moment. It is altogether satisfying.

“You have made known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forever more.” (Psalm 16:11) God certainly knows about the yearning for a joy that is full and real and everlasting; He provides in us both the yearning and the fulfillment. Jesus in his prayer to his Father and our Father said, “I am coming to you now, while I am still in the world, so that the full measure of my joy may be within them.” (John 17:13).

When we think of the world and of the Father God, there seems to be a big hazy gap between us, as if we are so different from Him, that neither He nor we can truly bridge the gap. But Jesus makes it clear that his joy is our joy, and that he knows exactly where and how that joy exists for us. The first swim of the summer may be a foreshadow, but the joy we have in him is without end.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:17). Spring, summer, fall or winter the yearnings remind us of the One who fulfills them all.

Love in Him,

Prue