I'm sitting at my desk tonight feeling like I've been hit by a truck!! My nose is stuffed up, I can hardly breathe and my head feels like it weighs 15 lbs!!!
Just this past Saturday I sat at my kitchen table eating breakfast watching a bunch of robins cavorting in the snow outside. Yes, I said robins! I was so excited thinking spring couldn't be far behind. That day and the next day the temperatures went into the 40s and it felt like a heat wave!!! Hope was stirred in my heart!
Then, just when I thought it was safe to go outside without my long underwear, came Monday!
Monday, Monday, can't trust that day!!
(lyrics to an old Mamas & Papas song)
The temperature was back in the teens with a terrific wind blowing - sure made it known that Old Man Winter was not ready to let go of his hold on us just yet! And then tonight, watching the news, adding insult to injury, it was predicted to go down to -10 degrees tonight!! And there is no end in sight!
I don't know about you, but I'm done!!
Oh, if only it were that easy to be done with winter - to just say the words - I'm done!!
But, I know spring will come - I have no idea when - but I know it will come!
And with thoughts of spring comes the promise of new life. When I think of the spring season, I always think of newness of life. Just as our hearts long for spring, so, too, we long for newness of life.
It reminds me of times in our lives when we think the "winter" will never end. All of our hopes and dreams have seemingly been "buried beneath the snow" and we can't even imagine resurrection, let alone hope for it!
It may be hard to believe right at the moment, but the flowers will appear, the birds will sing again! The winter season will end, truly it will!
"For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."
Song of Solomon 2:10, 11
Several years ago, a friend brought me some tulips for my birthday. My birthday is in February, so these tulips were subjected to some severe weather before they made it to my house. They looked very droopy and pretty sad as I put them in a vase of water and put them in the sun on my windowsill. I figured the sun would cause them to stand up again, but by the end of the day, they still looked pretty sad and I didn't think they were going to recover.
How surprised and amazed I was when I got up the next morning to find them standing at attention and looking very much revived!! They had "come back to life" during the "night season!" They needed the coolness to revive again!
During the "night season" or the "winter season", we can't see what's going on in the dark or under all the snow, but a mighty work is taking place. Some of the greatest growth in my life has come from the darkest seasons I've ever been through! All new life comes from dark places - even resurrection follows a cross and dark tomb.
God is at work even if we can't see or feel it. He is always at work in our lives; the roots are reaching deep underground and we can't see any growth at all and can be pretty well convinced that God has forsaken us or we've done something to displease or dissapoint Him.
God is at work even if we can't see or feel it. He is always at work in our lives; the roots are reaching deep underground and we can't see any growth at all and can be pretty well convinced that God has forsaken us or we've done something to displease or dissapoint Him.
But, in the spring, when the flowers grow and bloom and wave strongly in the breeze, we realize there was a foundation being "built" that would enable that flower to withstand the rains and winds and any unfavorable weather to come!
Our lives are like that! We go through "winter" seasons and don't understand what is happening, but God is "building" His character in us. He is building our foundation in Him that will prove valuable in the future when adversities come, and be assured they will come!
Embrace your "winter" season - oh, how I don't want to do that right now - but be assured, spring will come. The newness of life we so desperately hunger for right now will come and we will once again feel the "Son" shining warm upon us!
I think of the words of a beautiful song, The Rose:
"Just remewmber in the winter far beneath the bitter snow
Lies the seed that with the sun's (Son's) love, in the spring becomes the rose."
Your spring is coming!!
Believe it!
Hope for it!
Look for it!
Expect it!
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