It’s been a long winter! "Well no, it hasn’t," you might be
thinking. "It’s really barely begun this year." Well the truth is—and I think
some of you know this—winters in our lives don’t always follow the earth’s
cycle of seasons.
For me it’s been a long winter and I was talking to God
about this the other day. I was telling him how hard it is going to be to go
through another physical winter with a spiritual winter still hanging on. Couldn’t
we just get on with it and move on to the next season? He encouraged me by
pointing out that spring is coming. It was an uplifting thought, but I needed more. It seemed like it was so far off still and I was ready to be done with winter right now!
And God was gracious and loving to His frustrated daughter.
He didn’t tell me when, he didn’t tell me that it’s here, but he did begin to
show me signs of spring, signs that things are changing, that things are on the
move; signs that he’s preparing the soil, that He’s up to something good, even
though it’s been hard to see. He even showed me how a few things that could be discouraging if I dwelt on them in the wrong way were really signs of hope, signs
of life, an indication that things won’t stay dead and dormant forever, but
that life will begin to blossom again.
In Colorado it might be hard to get an accurate picture of
what I’m describing. Spring can hardly be called spring here. It’s more like
fits and starts between winter and summer and then BAM—summer finally sticks.
What I’m talking about is a more like a New England spring, one that is a
gradual, even process, where buds begin to appear, where flowers begin to poke
their heads through the earth, as at least four or five months’ worth of snow
begins to melt. I picture my mom, out in her garden, tilling up the soil and
cleaning up muck that has slipped into the wrong places during the long, hard
winter.
Are you in the middle of winter, are you longing for spring?
God knows that sometimes we need help to be patient, help to believe that He’s
moving things along, that it won’t always be winter. We need just a little bit of sight to encourage our faith. My prayer for you today is
that He would show you some of your own signs of spring. That you would continue to believe that He is working, moving the seasons forward, and that He's up to something good in your life.
