Remember The Winter

I knew it was coming.
But I didn’t know it was here.
Not like this.
Early mornings in the basement office that is my “sanctuary” restricts me from seeing the full story.
And I would get a simple text from my hubby at just about 8 that read, “Have you seen outside this morning?”
And I hadn’t.
So I came to see.
And it shouldn’t surprise any of us that it’s there.
The lovely white stuff even this late into April.
I’m certain we get it every year.

And I would say it to a friend just one year ago I think.  One snow bird to another… “This is winter’s final farewell.”

I would even hit send to a comment on a post this morning, “It IS a beautiful sight to see!”

And then it hit me a little deeper when I read it in the Facebook post just minutes ago.  The one I would smile at, while simultaneously deep sighing for a bit.  “Winter just won’t give in to spring” she’d say.

And without her knowing, her words pierced my heart, while God whispered to my soul… “I’m not finished yet.”

Because could it really be that just as winter isn’t finished yet - just as winter won’t give in to spring - He, too, isn’t finished either?  Could it be that there’s something He still wants to say… still so much we have to see?  Learn?

Wasn’t it Jesus who said it to His willing, yet immature students?  The ones who thought they knew, but who had failed to allow impressions they’d been privy to, to actually mold their character, shape their nature, and change their perspective?  "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.”  (John 16:12)

Ahh… could it be that the work… in us… isn’t complete yet?  And that He has so much more to say to the willing hearer?

Perhaps in this season of pandemic terror, and quarantine discomfort, we are being summoned to “remember the winter.”

Remember the darkness… that burst into light!
Remember the illness… that was miraculously healed!
Remember the bitter cold… that transformed into warmth!
Remember the pain… that ushered in presence!

There’s a new season upon us!
“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”  (Is 43:19)
But we are being employed AND empowered to… Remember, Recall, and Repeat.

To remember His faithfulness.
Recall His goodness.
Repeat His mercies.

Remember the winter.

We can’t embark upon a new season without having gained all we can from the old.

And maybe, if nothing else, we can learn, like Paul, how to, “…be content with whatever I have.  I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.”  (Phil 4:11-12)

Remember the winter.
Glance back as you move forward.

It all matters…