A Change of Perspective

Dear Winter,
I must confess, I have not always ever thought the best of you. As I have grown older and you seem to have grown more bitter my perspective has changed. Or maybe it's better said that my perspective is changing. This has been a terrible season. The expected cold that bears down is not surprising, yet I'm saddened or even angry when it's here. Then there are the sometimes unbearable snows that bust in on my already dreary days debilitating me. And then pity of all pities you present these sweet rays of hope scattered throughout the season that one day you will be gone and brighter days will surely be around again, but then you dash those hopes when after those bright peeks the temperatures plummet.

I could focus on all of these things, but here's what I'm seeing more. I'm seeing that I need you. You come and kill things, which if stopped there seems so bleak. But you kill things so that new life can spring forth at the proper time. You burst in with your crazy snows providing the very sustaining water plants will need when the scorching heat of summer saps them. You bring a crispness to the oxygen my lungs crave like no other season does. I need you. I need you because I need to remember how great Spring and Autumn are. You build anticipation for the very season I long for. But here's something I've seen as well. You hold a beauty of your own. You are not just a bridge for me to get from lovely season to lovely season, but you actually are quite lovely.

Snow, glitter from the heavens, looks so beautiful fluttering down blanketing the ground. It's so dreamy when I look up at the old lamp posts and see the magic swirling. I love awaking to see the snow pulled taught across my yard, no footprints yet marring the canvas. I love bundling up and braving your cold to play in the fluff. The ice that is too treacherous to tread on is magnificent when dangling so delicately off branches reflecting the tiniest rays of light. I love your clear nights, soup, and hot chocolate. You are beautiful and I need you.

It's funny because as I've seen you in a new light, I've also seen the past 3 years and future differently. You are not just a season to get through, as this is not a season of my life to just get through. There is a beauty to be seen here and I am confident my eyes are opening to see that. My trials are too be expected, that's what He has promised. The burial under the weight of many a snow shower is a time to hunker down and rest, to save my energy for a season when I will need more than I have. And this waiting, these trials, will one day give some relief to a new season. A season that is maybe more favored but no more valuable. Every season has its issues. Spring is a little too rainy for my liking, Summer can be brutal, and Autumn can be so fickle. You've gotten a bad rap and I've contributed to it but I'm changing.

As Spring enters in I welcome it gladly, likewise as a new season of life for me seems to be on the brink I wait expectantly for it. I cherish the memories I made in my Winter and I anticipate a time when you will come around again, because you always do, He promised.

Growing to Appreciate Who You Are,
A Life Under Grace

Have you heard this song?