Wind chime

“You own the day and the night.

Sunlight and starlight call you Creator.

The four corners of the earth were formed by your hands,

and every changing season owes its beauty to you.”

(Psalm 74:16-17 TPT)

Although I have friends who live in places that are warm and sunny all year around, I do not. Instead, I live in a place with four distinct seasons, including (currently) the cold and snow of winter. I do not particularly like the cold, but I do enjoy the beauty of the snow on the trees – although, not on the roads. However, just as snow does not discriminate on where it lands, oftentimes life circumstances do not discriminate, either. Recently I found this paragraph I wrote several years ago.

“The wind chime outside my kitchen window is frozen with ice. Until just now it sang a cheerful song, but the weather changed and now it is just a silent ice ball. I was thinking about this, in light of struggles we have. Maybe we are usually cheerful and “singing” beautifully as we go about our daily life. Then our circumstances change – “ice” comes, so to speak – and we feel frozen and silent. The good news is that the weather – literal and figurative – will change again. By the grace of God we can go back to singing beautifully in the Spirit. This was part of the promise of Advent – that Emmanuel was coming to be with us and to help us sing again. And it’s part of the promise of Lent – that when we humble ourselves, repent, and seek God’s grace, we will be resurrected to sing again. Be encouraged today – whatever the frozenness or “ice” in your life: ‘This, too, shall pass.'”

Sometimes in the cold and frozenness of our literal or spiritual winter, there seems to be no end to the “ice” of life. Even though on some level we know that the season will change, unlike the physical seasons, the length of spiritual/emotional seasons are rarely as well defined. Hard seasons may seem to drag on and on and on. And then when a wonderful season happens, we can easily find ourselves so relieved to be “back to normal,” that we forget to treasure the beauty and wonder of the “summer” of life.

So, today, no matter what season you are in, remember that our Creating God is faithful to give us all we need in every season of life.

God,

Your creation is so beautiful and winter, spring, summer, and fall have so much to teach us. Thank you for your wisdom and your grace upon every season of our lives. Thank you that even when we feel like our lives are frozen in ice, you are still present to us. What was frozen through is newly purposed. Even now in death you open doors for life to enter. Thank you for working within us to recreate us for each new season. Give us peace, patience, and joy in the waiting during hard seasons, but remind us of your faithfulness and your good plan for us. Fill us anew with hope, we ask in Christ’s name, AMEN.

“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.” (Genesis 8:22 NIV)

“Every Season” by Nichole Nordeman

Every evening sky, an invitation

To trace the patterned stars

And early in July, a celebration

For freedom that is ours

And I notice You

In children’s games

In those who watch them from the shade

Every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder

You are summer

And even when the trees have just surrendered

To the harvest time

Forfeiting their leaves in late September

And sending us inside

Still I notice You when change begins

And I am braced for colder winds

I will offer thanks for what has been and what’s to come

You are autumn

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

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced

Teaching us to breathe

What was frozen through is newly purposed

Turning all things green

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