SENTINEL WATCH May 9, 2005 Issue

SPRING—AND NEW BEGINNINGS

RICHARD NENNEMAN

SPRING OFTEN COMES late for those of us who live in the northeastern United States. Maybe that's why we appreciate it so much. I remember the actual sense of joy I felt as a younger person in Phoenix, Arizona, when I smelled the orange blossoms in the air in late March, or went out to see the desert cactus in bloom in April. And even farther back, when the snow began to melt at my college campus and I could smell the earth again, something stirred within.

Spring gives us that feeling of new beginnings—and most of us would admit that new beginnings are often needed. But the delights of spring aren't the only way to experience a fresh start. The American clergyman Samuel Longfellow wrote in a poem, which can be found in the Christian Science Hymnal, about the "Life that maketh all things new, / The blooming earth, the thoughts of men" (No. 218). I find that it's these "thoughts of men" that most often call for renewal.

In colonial America, the Puritan tradition in New England held that, to become a member of one's local church, a person had to provide some evidence of having a "new birth" experience—of having been changed by the hand of God, as it were. This tradition lasted well into the 19th century.