It’s Springtime and the world is bursting forth with life, color, and song. The birds and Robins are out in force, the rabbits are making hay, and the variations of creation’s green is approaching infinite. It’s all a very enjoyable season, delightful to the eyes, ears, skin, and even most people’s noses.

But is it ok to enjoy all this bursting of creation? Is it right to rejoice and splish-splash in all the flowers and grasses and fruits and streams of spring? Is it ok to revel in the fun of watching my dog splash through the six-inch deep water of the HOA’s retention pond, acting like she’s some 6 month old puppy, flipping left and right and hopping up and down and showering herself with showers of liquid rainbow light?

Jesus says it is: “…and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart” (Psalm 104:15). Wine and oil and bread could have just been medicinal; but Jesus broadens their blessings into the realm of joy and satiation and beauty.

The other JC agrees. In his chapter on The Right Use of the Present Life (Institutes, Book III), and under the section Earthly Things are Gifts of God, Calvin says: “Should the Lord have attracted our eyes to the beauty of the flowers, and our sense of smell to pleasant odors, and should it then be sin to drink them in?

“Has he not even made the colors so that the one is more wonderful than the other? Has he not granted to gold and silver, to ivory and marble a beauty which makes them more precious than other metals and stones?

“In one word, has he not made many things worth our attention that go far beyond our needs?” Like the Chinese waiter always says, “Enjoy!”

When Christians read about the fall of Adam, they don’t realize that the serpent was sent as an angel to help minister and mature Adam and Eve (Hebrews 1:14). Eve’s response demonstrates a level of maturity about his question, as she responds that they may not eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle, nor touch it. At this point Satan chooses to rebel against God, and falls, and attempts to gain control of God’s newly created world, replying, “You will surely not die.”

But what else Christians don’t realize as well is that Adam is standing there during this conversation (3:6b), and he fails to do his duty: guard the garden. Protect it from invaders or danger or attack. Satan contradicts the word of God, and Adam should have acted to defend his bride and the garden. But he doesn’t.

Now fast forward 4000 years, and when the Second Adam is in the garden, and Satan enters it in the personage of Judas to spoil it and win the new world order, acting craftily with a betraying kiss and a pleasant greeting, Jesus defends the garden and his bride. He steps forward and says “Whom do you seek?” and “I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go” (John 18:5–8). Jesus defended his bride, the eleven disciples. He guarded the garden, giving up himself for the bride.

So remember that Jesus is always guarding you, his bride, and has been doing so all your life. And he’s been guarding all the believers around you, all their lives. He loves his bride, he loves you, and he moves to protect you in ways you can’t even imagine. He guards you for good, 24/7/till death. Be grateful by giving thanks that you don’t just have a guardian angel, but a Guardian Lord!

Pentecost is a great time of remembrance and celebration. The giving of the Holy Spirit upon believers in order to be lights and temples in the pagan and unfaithful Jewish culture is worth remembering. Also worth remembering is the beginning of the filling of ordinary Christians with the Holy Spirit upon baptism (Acts 2:38). The text relates that none of those 3000 baptized that day went about exercising extraordinary gifts such as healing, tongues, or prophesying. They were just normal Christians who were temples of Christ filled with his Holy Spirit.

So what did the normal baptized Christians do? Verse 42 says they devoted themselves “to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Things you can be doing today in the modern church!

The Apostles’ teaching? We have that recorded in the Acts and the Newer Testament. But are you devoting yourself to their teaching? Are you discussing their teaching in your family and with Christian friends? And are you giving yourself to the fellowship which that devotion creates? At church when the doors open? And linger to fellowship? And attend other outside gatherings and get togethers? The Christian faith is about relationships, not just propositional truth. But you can’t get to know people without being around them!

“Breaking of bread” is probably a reference to the Lord’s Supper, and in those days, daily. So keep up your weekly worship, whether at St. Mark or another church if you’re on the road or vacation, etc. Prayers? Probably those that occur in the liturgy, but there’s nothing wrong with a personal prayer life after reading the scriptures. There’s always plenty to give thanks for—like the Holy Spirit!