Every Season

Are we done with Winter yet?  Oh my goodness has this been a wild one.

While driving from Indianapolis to Terre Haute on Wednesday of this week, I think I experienced all four seasons on my trip.   It started out pouring rain for the first hour. As I continued, there was a brief moment of the sun breaking through the clouds, but it was immediately followed by strong winds, buffeting me along the way.  Finally, white-out snow to wrap up the trip.  Crazy!

“And everything in time and under heaven
Finally falls asleep.
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation
Shivers underneath.  

And still I notice you,
When branches crack
And in my breath on frosted glass.
Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter
You are winter.”

In each season of the year, it seems we can find something to complain about; too hot, too cold, too much rain, too blustery.  But, all of these things have their purpose as God renews His creation year after year.

This beautiful song by Nicole Noredeman is a poignant reminder of how we can embrace all of the extremes we experience in weather throughout the course of a year. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dwpdZdvCl8)

The familiar verses from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 come to mind:

“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.”

Our lives are like this too.  Just like the Winter we have been living, we have seasons where we draw inward, responding to the coldness of this world.  We can choose to look at these times from a perspective of negativity or as ones of necessity.

I love how this song builds to a crescendo as Spring comes forth.

“And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced,
Teaching us to breathe.
What was frozen through is newly purposed
Turning all things green.”

You can almost feel the buds from the trees coming forth and the warm sun shining on your face.  Trust me, Spring is coming and we are almost done with this time of shivering hibernation.

“So it is with You,
And how You make me new,
With every season’s change.
And so it will be,
As You are re-creating me,
Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring”

So, do we push against the challenges each season brings?  Or, do we embrace them as necessary ways for growth and renewal to occur.  What season are you in?  Absorb the baking heat of Summer.  Allow yourself to be moved by the winds of Autumn.  Breathe in the chill of Winter. But most of all, open your arms and heart to the blooming of Spring.  Whether it is a season of the year or a season of your life, He is re-creating you at each step along the way.