On my walk this morning I enjoyed the opportunity to soak in the cool but comfortable temperature, the sun rising in a pristine blue sky, and the fragrance of linden trees wafting in the air. Ah, the first days of June, with summer just a few weeks away (and already unofficially here since Memorial Day)!
It’s hard to believe that just four months ago, we were languishing in freezing temps and dingy grey skies, and the question lingering in our minds was whether winter would EVER end.
Interesting thought, given that God might have whispered this to me this past January: “Jeff, why do you doubt that winter will pass and that spring will come?” After all, as God promised in Genesis 8.22, “As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”
I can imagine myself arguing with His question. “God, these dreary winter days feel like they go on forever.” Still, after my morning walk today, that seemingly endless winter drudgery is just a memory, and indeed, as was promised, summer is here again.
It’s a reminder to me and to all of us that our human tendency is to get “stuck” in whatever life difficulties we are enduring in our present experience. Whatever fills our frame of reference tends to drain our energy and focus. As David put it in Psalm 6.3: “My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?”
God’s reply to David and to us might be, “not an extra second longer than it takes to accomplish my purposes and my plan.” That is the foundation of Paul’s comment in 2 Corinthians 4.16-17: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
To those of you who are in one of those “never-ending winter” moments in life, may I speak encouragement to your heart? God comforts us in our “stuck” moments by reminding us that the longest night is followed by the promise of redemption and victory for those who hold on and wait for His sunrise.
Let’s join the psalmist in declaring, “I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning” (Psalm 130.6). Trust your heavenly Father—the sunrise will come, and summer is on the way, just like He promised.