I love seasons. I find so much symbolism in nature and the natural cycle of creation. Today as I look out my window I see the sun. Today I can actually feel the warmth of the sun after the longest winter I've experienced in several years.
Over the last few months I've experienced an emotional and spiritual winter. I felt as if everything inside me went numb for a while, but today as I feel the warmth of the sun streaming through my window something is different.
Life is like that. We go through periods of winter where all inside us is dead, brown and cold. During those spiritual winters occasionally the snow comes and temporarily covers our wounds with Christ's perfection and reminds us that he heals and that his grace covers everything we bring to the earth. And then the sun rises.
We see and feel that warmth all around us. We, tempted to look down, recognize all too well the dead black remains of what was green and growing months before. As it gets brighter and warmer we feel embraced by something new. We were shivering alone before, but now we can brush off the coats that we made ourselves to try to make it through alone. We look down a second time and see the green emerge fertilized by the wounds of the past. Our garden grows again...refreshed renewed...
All because of the Son.
Beautiful. Welcome to the world of long, dark winters! Springtime never looked so good until I moved to a place in the north.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the song:
"There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today"
Makes me think the writer of those lyrics was thinking along your lines :-)
Anne Bradstreet summed it up nicely with "If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
ReplyDeleteIn 2 Corithians 12:9-10, Paul welcomes his winter for the opportunity to be stronger with Christ.
Finally, as one who has also weathered a particularly harsh winter, I refer to my favorite part of the Serenity prayer at least weekly: "Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace." I usually don't understand the reasons for the hardship at the time, but I now understand that those reasons will be revealed to me in the future and I will then celebrate that glorious winter! Well, maybe not the winter itself, but definitely the lessons learned and the strength gained.
Son-shine is my favorite. ;o)
ReplyDelete