I love this time of year. Not the fact that it’s still freezing cold, that I have to wear layer upon layer of clothes, that I have to heat up my car before I even use it, or that it’s so cold in the house when I wake up.
But I love when the days start lengthening.
Daylight now greets me when I walk into the kitchen for breakfast and again when I leave my office in the early evening.
I love that three or four weeks ago it felt and looked impossible that Winter would ever end. The world covered in a thick blanket of white, seemingly unmoving, unable to change, incapable of bright color and new life.
But then it happens. Just when we all feel like it never will. Just when the effort of Winter starts to chip away at our joy, our life energy. Just at the bleakest moment, Spring glimmers at us in the dawn.
The hope of warmth, new life bursting from the soil, beauty, color, and change all start to feel like potential realities. Hope flickers at us in the extra light and the sound of the morning birds. Small cracks in the darkness reminding us Spring will indeed come!
That’s how it is with life isn’t it? We all go through seasons. There are very real Winters in our lives. Winters that feel like they never will end. Winters with circumstances that loudly shout change, escape, new-life is impossible.
Yet we keep going. We keep praying. We keep living. And one day? It comes. Change. Glimmers of a new life. Hope.
So whatever Winter you may be facing or will face soon in life. Remind yourself – Spring always comes. Hope is always a possibility because our God is not defined by our circumstances.
Today, when we look at our lives, may we see through eyes of Hope. May we remember the promise of Spring. Of Easter. As we live this Lent, this Winter’s end, may we choose trust, living as people of the Spring.
