We don’t have much of a winter in Texas, at least compared to most of the U.S.
But what winter weather we do have always seems to hold on tight and drag on and on … It’s warm and pleasant one day and cold and wet the next like the state is never quite sure what sort of weather it wants to have. By the time March comes around, I’m so over it and ready for the warm, sunshiny days of springtime.
One thing I can always count on is the solid fact that the cold, dreary days of winter will not last forever.
That’s one of the beautiful things about God and this world He created for us to live in. He is a God of order and cycles, and everything in this world operates accordingly. All of nature revolves in a cycle that cannot be stopped. No force in nature or force of man can stop nature from progressing from winter to spring.
But, being a God of order, God’s perfect design does not stop there.
The unstoppable cycle of seasons reminds us that our lives, like nature, consist of seasons as well.
Sometimes we are in the middle of winter. It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s unpleasant. The sun seems perpetually hidden behind gray clouds, ice, and snow. Maybe that winter season you are in is characterized by sickness, or maybe it’s the loss of a loved one. Maybe it’s a job loss, an injury, the loss of a friendship, a desperate financial situation, a divorce … The bleak season you are in seems to drag on and on with no end in sight. Will the sun ever shine again? Will the warm days of “spring” ever chase away the chill?
But we have this comfort: no season lasts forever. We must always believe that no matter how cold and harsh the winter, spring is coming. It will always come.
My favorite Christian artist, Steven Curtis Chapman, wrote a beautiful song that perfectly sums up this thought. As I was mulling over this post, I suddenly remembered it and knew I had to mention it here. Several years ago, he and his family experienced one of the darkest seasons imaginable--the loss of their six-year-old little girl in a tragic accident. In the middle of that deep, dark winter, in the depths of his pain, he held onto the inevitable truth that spring would come again in their lives.
Here are the words:
We planted the seed while the tears of our grief soaked the ground
The sky lost its sun, and the world lost its green to lifeless brown
Now the chilling wind has turned the earth hard as stone
And silently seed rise beneath ice and snow
And my heart's heavy now
But I'm not letting go of this hope I have that tells me...
Spring is coming, Spring is coming
And all we've been hoping and longing for soon will appear
Spring is coming, Spring is coming
It won't be long now, it's just about here
Hear the birds start to sing
Feel the life in the breeze
Watch the ice melt away
The kids are coming out to play
Feel the sun on your skin
Growing strong and warm again
Watch the ground: there's something moving
Something is breaking through
New life is breaking through
Spring is coming, Spring is coming
And all we've been hoping and longing for soon will appear
Spring is coming, Spring is coming
And it won't be long now, it's just about here
~ “Spring Is Coming” by Steven Curtis Chapman
Reading those words brings tears to my eyes. It’s so easy to despair at the sadness, pain, and struggles surrounding us. It can seem so endless and insurmountable. But God ingrained into nature a beautiful promise that it won’t last forever! No matter what season of life we find ourselves in, we can hold onto the knowledge that spring will bloom again. The prayers you’ve been praying--they will be answered. The trials you’ve been facing--they will come to an end. The pain that hangs heavy around your heart--it will heal.
Beauty and new life will come from what has been dead and barren.
Hold onto the hope of spring. It will be here soon.
**Photo by Anna Urlapova from Pexels
