The Winter of Life

 In Ecclesiastes 3:1 we read,
"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."
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Here in the Jersey pocket of the East Coast of the US, we are in the dead center of winter. The temp rested around 6 degrees last night and the usual loud nature sounds outside retreated to stillness. 
Just like the weather here in the North East, sometimes life has seasons that  feel an awful lot like winter. Maybe you feel as though your spiritual walk is stagnant, or that you've been waiting for an answered prayer forever, or life has beaten you up a bit. You aren't feeling vibrant, warm, or alive. I have been there... we have all been there. Life is full of valleys, peaks, trials, and detours. Sometimes, God in His goodness allows these seasons to show us the greatness of His hand or to invite us to rest in His presence while we wait for our breakthrough to come. 
I could take it as far as to say that all of this life for the believer is a season of winter and that we are waiting on our King to come and bring Spring to the land and to our hearts again. It reminds me of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when they are speaking about Aslan returning... 
"Wrong will be right when Aslan comes in sight, At the Sound of His Roar, sorrows will be no more, when He bears His teeth, winter meets it's death, and when He shakes His mane, we shall have spring again."
The Lion of Judah will come and the age of winter will be over.... and OH what a glorious day.
Until then, here we are, all of us in different places on the journey, in different seasons of life, and with different testimonies to share. I look around sometimes at the winter landscape outside my window and I realize that it has its own unique beauty to behold. That there is something about the shorter days, the stillness, and the way the earth sleeps, that makes it shockingly beautiful. It is so much like the challenges of my life.... when I can see them through the lens of heaven and realize that there is beauty there If I choose to see it. 
I encourage you all today to see the beauty. 
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
 I will fear no evil,
 for you are with me;
 your rod and your staff,
 they comfort me. You prepare a table before me
 in the presence of my enemies;
 you anoint my head with oil;
 my cup overflows.
 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
 all the days of my life,
 and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
 forever.” Ps. 23:4-5 (ESV)