Although the forecast isn’t looking good, signs of spring are popping up all around us. In garden centers and parking lots everywhere stacks of potting soil, fertilizer, and pre-emergent weed killer are growing taller every day.

Beyond the city limits, more changes are taking place. Farmers are talking less about last year’s harvest. Around their coffee pots, discussions about this year’s planting season already are emerging. Estimations are being made about how much seed will be needed and calculations about the cost of putting another crop in the ground are being jotted down.

On a smaller scale, the backyard gardeners also are making plans.

Some of them have already started laying out their vegetable beds and enriching the soil. They have drawn out diagrams with a pencil or printed out computerized designs for their gardens. Many have read books and attended classes to perfect their growing skills. Others have learned from experience what will grow in their yards and what will not.

Away from the soil, in classrooms across the nation, students and teachers are counting the weeks until spring break. In most cases, Punxsutawney Phil was right. All those plans that are emerging will have to wait another six weeks.

In the retail world, there is even more evidence of the emergent season. As racks of winter bargains disappear, crates of new arrivals are being opened. Shelves are being cleared to make room for spring merchandise, and shoppers, eager for a change, have started buying summer clothing long before it is needed.

As followers of Christ, we are also in the emergent season.

The apostle Paul gave this advice to his spiritual son, Timothy: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:2 NASB).

In an emergent society where traditional values are being challenged and new ideologies are surfacing every day, shouldn’t we know what the Scripture says and be ready to take a stand for our beliefs regardless of the season.

Bonnie Wheat is an author and a minister’s wife. She can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it