The Hope Spring Brings
Wherever you live, do you see it? The green starting to pop out in the trees? The early flowers showing their beauty? I do!
I love getting to enjoy my neighbors peach tree each spring without having to take care of it!
Spring is absolutely, hands down my favorite season! I cannot tell you what it does to my soul every single spring. In the winter I feel more lethargic, but let the flowers and trees start to wake up, and so do I! My energy finds a whole new level! I hate to say it, but I spend most of the winter waiting for the spring!
After multiple losses last fall, lethargy and sadness arrived early before winter did! It seemed from then until now, life has not been what I consider “normal.” Nothing planned occurred as I planned it!
Daniel 2:21, reminds us that it’s God who changes the “times and the seasons.” We read in Ecclesiastes 1 that there is a time for “everything.” Everything has purpose since God is sovereign over time and seasons.
I do understand the necessity of dormant seasons. Vegetation needs to rest so that it can grow and bear fruit. And if the stalk or limb is removed from its roots and trunks, it will not flourish. Because of the importance of the vine and the branches staying attached, I know I need to stay in intimacy with Jesus in dormant and flourishing seasons.
In gloomy cold weeks, I can walk more slowly through my morning time. For that I am grateful. Oh, but give me the warm, sunny days where I can sit outside and I have more joy watching newness in nature and in my heart. Hope seems to dwell a bit closer to my heart then.
Hope, energy, new life…isn’t that what Easter means? I’m so grateful Jesus made the sacrifice so that I can grow, and even thrive, in winter seasons as well as in the spring.
Lamentations 3 includes a beautiful reminder of God’s grace:
Mercies are new how often? EVERY MORNING! And every season! Even if I have to look a little harder in winter and in difficulty, those mercies are there. I need this reminder right now, but I’ll need it even more when winter approaches or the next unexpected situation arises.
