Thursday, February 17, 2011

WINTER

I just love winter. I justify my feelings because there is such pristine beauty in the snow flakes and how they cover the ground making everything beautiful - white. The picture it paints of purity and holiness. And then again, sometimes I think it's just because I'm so lazy! I love playing in the snow, curling up with a blanket by the fire with soups or stews simmering on the stove and a cup of hot coffee in my hand. I love how the city is forced to slow down because in Texas NO ONE can drive in this stuff. We aren't equipped. Isn't it funny how we complain about our schedules and then we complain more loudly when we are forced to be still? Winter reminds us that the sap runs down and the plants grow dormant. Nature knows there is a time to be still. To allow God to do His work in the secret.
Some of us aren't made to be lazy. My precious husband is a man's man. He loves to do. He has made my life better in a million ways because he is such a provider and do-er. Here he is shoveling off the walkway to our house (which no one used, by the way - because NO ONE, I repeat NO ONE was out in the weather). He felt good about it. I did too because I spent a lot of time going outside to look at the snow and take pictures and it helped me to notice that there were tire tracks across the walkway. I guess some poor soul mistook our front yard for the road. Which is why we don't need to be out and about.
Aren't these trees beautiful? They are standing strong and sturdy allowing the bitter cold to rest on them for a while until the warmth of the sun melts the cold away and new life will begin to stir the sap and before we know it there will be new growth. That's what I am praying for as spring begins to peek at us from around the corner. I want new life. Fresh growth. A mystery arising from my life that is a testimony of roots dug deep.
I am so glad that I took the time to stop on those cold days and record them in picture. To me they are precious reminders that God is on the throne. He is in control. He can stop a city. He can still a heart. He can bring life from death.
Spring is coming. I have some sprucing up to do before it gets here. Some dead things to rake away. Some fertilizer to apply. Some pruning of straggly and unruly ends. The Master Gardener is doing the same thing in me. I intend to cooperate and watch to see the beauty spring will produce.....out of the beauty of the winter.