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Viewpoint from Rev Dan Waite 17/04/2015
 as published in the Yarmouth Mercury
Revd Dan Waite
Associate Vicar, St Andrew’s Church, Gorleston
I love walking in my garden in the springtime. When the short days of winter are gone and the cold, dark, wet soil starts to come to life. First we are blessed with the white of snowdrops, then the yellow of aconites and crocuses and later primroses and daffodils as we go through Lent and approach Eastertide. It is an annual celebration of renewal. All those plants which died down last year have been renewed and restored in greater number
 This act of renewal in the plant world is similarly reflected in the rejuvenated life of insects and birds and animals. It speaks powerfully to me of the wonder and complexity of God’s creation. Creation isn’t something that God just did at the beginning, he set all things going with built in triggers for growth and rest times, for reproduction purposes, for maturity and decline
We have the blessing each year to be renewed and re-awakened to the beauty of God’s world and his call to us to be involved with him in creation. He is certainly the head gardener and he calls us to take part and use the creative gifts he has given each one of us to work and take care of the world
 The annual awakening and renewal of things around us in spring is a godly reminder of what our Father God has given us in Jesus his Son. We are still in the season of Easter which tells the story of an ultimate renewal – the raising to life of God’s Son Jesus Christ after his terrible death on the cross of Calvary. This is the key point of our Christian faith, a faith that calls us to seek a close relationship with our God. And as we seek that loving relationship we become aware that we are unable to come close to God because of our wrong thoughts and wrong words and wrong actions – our sin. But in his love, mercy and grace God provided a way for us to come close to him, and that is through Jesus’ willingness to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins
So our personal renewal starts when we do two things, say sorry to God by repenting for our sins and secondly, we recognise and believe in Jesus for who he is, God’s Son who came to live as a man, die on the cross and is now our Saviour in heaven. Jesus said “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16
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