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I love a good snowfall. There’s a certain tranquility about sitting in the cozy comfort of a warm home and watching snow silently, softly settle onto a barren landscape. Rough edges are smoothed, sharp angles are rounded, and the bright white of new snow blankets even the brownest, most barren stretches of earth leaving everything in sight in a pillowy purity.
But as spring nears and the mercury rises the time comes to bid farewell to our fluffy friend. And as the snow melts the drab dreariness of winter once again emerges dampening our spirits and depressing our moods.
There is a certain harshness to a barren landscape. Browns and grays dominate threatening to suppress any hope of returning life and the color it brings. Trees, like twisted skeletons, reach toward the sky in a silent slumber. And as the weeks drag on our spirit is tortured by the temptation to join in that sorrowful slumber, so we turn our gaze toward spring and long for the first sign of change.
You may be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t look forward to the dawn of spring. Winter’s drab dreariness morphs into spring’s bright bouquet. Trees and flowers that lie dormant through the cold months explode with life and color. Birds return to their nests, singing their gleeful melodies. The days grow longer and the weather more inviting. Spring is invigorating, it is enlivening and refreshing, it is a season of renewal and new beginnings. If winter has an antagonist, it is spring.
As the seasons of nature change, so do the seasons of life. We all have to endure life’s winters—times of emotional, physical, or spiritual dormancy. Times when the life is seemingly sucked out of us and we are bogged down in drab dreariness. Life’s winters can be harsh, even brutal, and, at times, we wonder if the season will ever change. But as seasons do, winter eventually yields to spring and we enjoy the freshness of a new beginning. Our spirit is renewed and we become infused with hope as spring’s bright bouquet blossoms in our soul.
This is the point Solomon made when he wrote in Ecclesiastes three:
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; . . . A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance; . . . A time to gain, and a time to lose;
A time to love, and a time to hate; . . . A time of war, and a time of peace.”
Life has many seasons; we must enjoy or endure them all. Some last longer than others, some are more painful than others, but seasons do change and winter eventually defers to spring. If you are enduring one of life’s winters, do not lose heart, turn your gaze toward spring, it may be just around the corner!
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