Winter

​Five years ago, in the dark night of my soul, I despaired.
I could not see that spring was coming.
That resurrection was coming.
 
While the calendar turned through the seasons, winter, spring, summer and fall, I remained in the winter of my soul. I laid in bed, in the dark gray light, hidden in the shadows.
 
And in my winter, there was quiet, resting, waiting.
 
As I continue to walk this journey of seasons, I inch toward spring, confidently held in His grace. I rest in the truth that despite what I feel, Jesus is coming.
 
Now facing the rising sun, I know that God has been preparing me through the winter of my soul, to bask in the Sonlight.
 
In Genesis 1:14 we read that God created the seasons and called them good. They are good for us and for all His creation. In contemplating the seasons, I see in God's grand story perfectly planned growth, harvest, death, and resurrection.
 
God brings rain in season, fruit, and harvest in His time says Leviticus 26:3-5.
Not when I am ready for it to end.
Not until the work is completed.
 
When God declared the seasons good, that included days of rest, seasons to leave the fields fallow, winter for all, that they may be renewed.
That we too, would bear much fruit, sharing in His resurrection so that we may make His Goods News of life known to all!
 
I pray that I never lose the perspective of winter. That though things seem dead, yet, there is hope. Lamentations 3:19-32 reads:
 “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him. Let him bury his face in the dust—there may yet be hope. Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace. For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.”
 
The morning comes.
 
The church historically holds an Easter vigil. The believers pray all night in confident expectation
that Easter,
that Jesus,
that Resurrection is coming.
Real resurrection of the soul.
I, too, pray with confident expectation that, because He lives, my future is more than this! I am not condemned to death. I need not live in winter forever.
 
Despite how long winter feels, spring is coming. If the winter of your soul seems long, longer than you want, take heart, He is coming.