Happy Groundhog Day!

I could not pass up the opportunity to write a post about Groundhog Day. It is my favorite holiday for the following reasons:

1. We need a reason to celebrate right about this time of year. The Christmas season has passed and the next big holiday is Valentine's Day, which the retail stores have been preparing for since December 26th.

2. The movie, Groundhog Day, is brilliant. I watch it every year. In fact, I only let myself watch it on Groundhog Day because otherwise I would be watching it all the time.

3. I never pass up a chance to have a party...groundhog cupcakes and all.

4. Most importantly, it is the reminder that winter does not last forever. I have had my share of bone chilling winters; the kind of winter where you start to forget how the warmth of the sun looks and feels. Regardless of how cold and long winter feels, the snow and ice always melt into spring.

"The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By His mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each day. I say to myself, 'the LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him.'"

-Lamentations 3:22-24

These verses were written during one of the darkest times in Israel's history. It was a time of destruction, exile, and hopelessness. The name of the book says it all! It is an acrostic poem, the very center of which are these verses. It is the reminder that no matter how desolate life becomes, God's lovingkindness is secure, and His faithfulness to us is renewed on a daily basis. For His children, eternal life with Him is our inheritance.  

Often we think of hope in uncertain terms. For example, we say things like "I hope I don't get stuck in traffic today" or "I hope it doesn't rain." But biblical hope is a fixed assurance in a certain future. It is not a wish that something may or may not be, it is the set knowledge in the promises of God. 

In this life we often find ourselves longing for more; it is because we were made for more. C.S. Lewis paints this hope beautifully in the last chapter of The Last Battle in the Chronicles of Narnia. The chapter is titled "Farewell to the Shadowlands" and on the last page C.S. Lewis writes,

"There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are- as you used to call it in the Shadowlands- dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."1 

It is described at the end of the last book of the Bible as this:

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.'" - Revelation 21:1-4

Even if moments of this life, or this life as a whole, feel hopeless and dreary, this is not the end. The end for believers is a glorious future. This life is the beginning of our eternal life with God. This winter will soon melt into spring. 

That's why I love Groundhog Day. It is the reminder that no matter how dark and desolate life feels, this is not it. We have hope that relief will come, whether it is in this life or the next. We cannot control our circumstances, as the movie Groundhog Day so humorously portrays, but we can control our attitude. We can set our focus on God and the hope of a certain future, and allow our lives to reflect that hope to those around us. 

1. C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle. HarperCollins: New York, 1956, p. 228.

2. Image taken from allthingsd.com