Changing of the Seasons

It is spring now and a warm 22⁰ outside. It’s such a relief to be able to walk outdoors without two layers of clothing, a heavy winter coat, boots, scarf, hat and gloves. Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. You see plants you thought were dead suddenly shooting up from the ground, leaves sprouting from bare trees, flowers budding and starting to bloom. The grass is green again, and the sun is warm on the skin.

Of all the adjustments we had to make in Canada, adjusting to the weather was one of the most difficult. Winter in Toronto can be harsh and bitterly cold, with temperatures going down to as low as -20⁰. With the wind chill, it can actually feel like -40⁰. It’s like walking into a freezer when you leave the house. Even ten minutes outside can cause your hands and feet to go numb.

I remember the first time we saw snow. It was such a beautiful sight, with the ground all covered in white. We probably spent an hour looking out the window, and when it was over, we went outside to play on the snow and make a snowman. Looking at snow is fun but walking out in the cold is not. While in the midst of a winter storm, many times I would cry out, “Lord, why did you bring us to this cold country?”

But seasons pass. What kept me warm during the cold winter months was the thought that spring was not far behind.

As sure as the seasons change, situations change and fortunes change. What keeps me going during trials is the hope that this too will pass. In a few weeks or months, I will look back, smile and say, “Now why did I worry about that?”

As God is at work in nature, ensuring that winter flows into spring, summer and fall, so too is God at work in our lives, turning failure into victory and sorrow into joy.

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant… What advantage has the worker from his toil? I have considered the task which God has appointed for men to be busied about. He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without men's ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, 9-11)