As I look at the past two years of my life I see a desolate landscape, barren trees that seem to bear no fruit, ground covered in a thick layer of frost allowing nothing to grow. It is a lonely picture...a cold and lonely place to dwell. There is no shelter to protect me from this bitter cold for this is winter's death.
Like all seasons, life too has a rhythm of death and new life. And sometimes those seasons are long and difficult to endure.
Occasionally there is a glimmer of hope, a change in the air. The sun breaks through the bleak gray sky and for a moment I can feel its warmth and the ground begins to thaw...it seems there is a new season coming, but in a moment the clouds return as does the bitter chill of winter.
Days turn into weeks and weeks become months...
when will this season end!
It is there that I look across this landscape of despair and see a reminder that this is only a season and it too shall pass. For off in the distance...breaking through the crust of winter's death is a glimpse of life anew! What was dormant through winter...resting, waiting, establishing roots, growing stronger, gaining strength, pushing through...
a reminder that life continues even when it seems that all hope is lost and we are on the verge of surrender...
Winter's death is necessary to bring about Spring's new life.
I saw snow drops today as I walked into town. It never ceases to amaze me how such a delicate and beautiful flower can survive such harsh conditions. It marks the beginning of the end of winter and more importantly the start of the glorious season of spring. "Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them." ~Isaiah 42:9
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