Spring is here – although Wikipedia tells me that whilst spring occurs on 1 September in Australia, it doesn’t arrive in New Zealand until 22 September. Apparently, it has something to do with Astronomical and Meteorological Seasons. Regardless of how the Kiwis calculate their seasons, here in Kangaroo Valley, winter is officially over, and spring has arrived.
There is something about spring which lifts our spirits. The days are getting longer; the weather is getting better; hopefully the cold days and nights of winter have passed; and the frosts are finished until next year. Plants are becoming green, and the first spring flowers can be seen.
For many people spring is the season when we celebrate new life. In the Northern Hemisphere, Easter and all the hope of new life that it brings occurs in spring. There are many parts of our lives that are associated with the season of spring. In Australia we have the Spring Racing Carnival which culminates in the Melbourne Cup Carnival and the race that stops the nation. Americans have Spring Break. Vietnam celebrates the arrival of spring with Tết Nguyên Đán, festival of the first day. Many cultures and countries celebrate the arrival of the season with Spring Day festivals which speak of hope and optimism.
Then there is the dreaded Spring Cleaning. There are many theories and much speculation about why a thorough cleaning of a house, or even a church building, acquired the name Spring Cleaning. My favourite suggestion is that, in cold climes, spring is the best time for dusting because it was getting warm enough to open windows and doors but not warm enough for insects to be a problem.
Spring cleaning has also come to be used for how we seek to re-order our lives. Taking stock of how we live to rid ourselves of bad habits and unhelpful practices. I even found a list of seven essential tasks to spring clean your life. A life spring clean requires us to establish a fitness regime and refine our relationships, declutter our homes of possessions, and declutter our schedules to find more me time; we also need to unplug from technology, change our diets and set or reset a budget.
These seven ways to spring clean our lives are all good things. But I can’t help thinking that we can become too focused on making our lives better and not think about those around us. Anytime is a good time to have a spring self-clean. Perhaps it is also a good time to take stock and ask who are we cleaning our lives for?
One of my favourite Bible verses asks God to clean our hearts. In Psalm 51, King David writes “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me”. As we spring clean our homes, or even our lives, let us remember that it isn’t much use making everything appear shiny and new if what is really needed is a clean heart.
Yours in Christ.
Andrew Heron