[Monday's Devotional] - Winter

"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven."
Ecclesiastes 3:1 [KJB]

I'm sure you are all familiar with the use of the seasons to describe our stage of life or the journey we are on. This week we are going to be looking at each of those seasons and thinking about what that season means spiritually, and what we can learn from it.

It seems most appropriate to begin by looking at winter. For many of us, the wintertime has probably been a time of moaning about the cold and the negative effects the season is having on us. It can be hard to really enjoy the winter especially if it goes on for a prolonged time.  At first it is exciting to see the snow, and the beauty of the frosty landscapes. But that quickly turns to frustration at the chaos it causes and the disruption it brings to the routine we know as normal.

Being in a spiritual winter season can be quite uncomfortable and lonely. We can feel stuck where we are, unable to get on and do things; it can be a time of isolation and a season when people quite often feel depressed. We often feel we are enduring a winter season alone, and it can be especially hard to be with others who are in a more fruitful season. It somehow accentuates the bleakness of the season we are in.

Psalm 74:17 says "You have made both the summer and the winter."  Sometimes it is spring or summer in our lives and we feel alive with new ideas and boundless energy. And sometimes it is winter, and sometimes it lasts a long time. We feel that parts of us are dying. We can't go on doing the same things and we need to rest. The "spiritual winter" seeks to give us rest, let things that need to die do so, and offers the hope of new growth. If we slow down and let it do its job, then winter becomes something that we can treasure and not just make it through. Winter is a time to get warm and intimate with God, a time to rest physically and to exist on what has been stored from the previous harvest. It is a time of gaining direction for planting, to glean from past mistakes, to repair and prepare for the coming spring.

If you are in a winter season, cherish that time and know that one day God will bring you out of it ready to take on new growth. Allow him to prune you and give in to the things that need to die away, for from that decay will come new and exciting things. And in the loneliness, lean on God for comfort and warmth. He has promised he'll see you through it.

Corinne Mason