A Frost in Spring
March and April are not my favorite months. You hear talk about spring, but is it really? Two years ago, we had a spring of ridiculous weather. We got hail and some places got snow at a time of year that had no business being that cold. It was April for goodness’ sake and it’s discouraging when your mind is looking forward to warmer weather and the coming to life of all things green. But it reminded me of a line in The Lord of the Rings - Return of the King where poor Samwise thinks he has lost Frodo to a giant poisonous spider and has to carry on, with the burden of the ring, into certain doom. As he thinks about his choices, he says to himself, “Well, all I can say is: things look as hopeless as a frost in spring.” Can you relate?
If you’ve read these books, you know that their overarching theme is HOPE. It’s even the meaning of Aragorn’s name. But all through the book you are taken on a sort of up and down roller coaster of wondering whether there is actually hope or not. Sam is a gardener, and his statement most likely harkens to how frost affects a garden, and definitely reflects his lack of hope for his future. But Tolkien was a master with words and I saw what he did there. Things look as hopeless as a frost in spring. Which of the two, in this case, is really without hope? It is not the spring after all. It is the frost! Though frost in the spring seems like a hopeless and discouraging event, as we wish for something different, it is the spring that will decisively win out in the end, and the reality is, the frost is the only one without hope. It has no power against the surety of the changing season.
Is this not the perfect picture of Easter? On a black and grievous Friday, it looked like there was no hope for light and victory. Darkness hailed down at noon when it had no business being there. But darkness did not know! It didn’t know that the light had already won. The light was there from the beginning and God’s plan for salvation through death was as set in stone as the coming of spring. I’m guessing those who had finally envisioned their future under a budding new rulership didn’t see that hope in the moment.
But Tolkien knew it, and he poignantly showed us in a single, simple line. Sam’s statement is a declaration of truth even if he didn’t know it or feel it at the time. If you are overwhelmed with frost that comes out of nowhere and seems to laugh in the face of spring, remember that the spring has already won. Lighthas already won. It’s the frost that has no chance, and it’s in that certainty that we have this constant hope.