The Singing of the Birds

The wise man tells us in Ecclesiastes, “To everything there is a season.” The Christian life, in the true sense of the word, is seasonal. In one of Peter’s sermons, speaking to God’s people, he mentions “when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord”; but in his first Epistle, he adds, “...for a season…ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” There are pleasant times, but also painful ones in the Christian life.

In the Song of Solomon, we find the Beloved coming to His betrothed, after the long wintry snows, and the cold rains, have passed. Listen to her as she tells us of this incident: “My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone...the time of the singing of the birds is come...”

To some of us it’s been an exceptionally long, cold, barren winter, in our spiritual lives. George Beverly Shea sings a heart-rending song; in it one line says, “Lord, to my heart bring back the springtime.”

And may God grant it soon, in each of our lives! So that we might also hear the words of our Beloved say, “The time of the singing of the birds is come.”

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