Genesis 8:22 says, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
Growing up in the northeast, I have always HATED the winter. I would rather be baking in the sun than freezing in the cold any day of the week. And trust me, if I ever get called to a warmer climate I’ll be there with bells on but till that day comes I realized last year I need to appreciate this time of the year more for a couple of reasons.
Reason 1: Hating it won’t change it. I can complain all I want, but the snow is still going to come.
Reason 2: I do not want to live my life waiting for the warm weather. Living for the weekend or surviving until the next vacation. I want to love my life where I am instead of rushing through the seasons that are tough.
There are crucial benefits of winter. As a farmer recently pointed out to me, we need the winter. Crops need the winter so the cold can kill any threat to the future plants. Without the winter, the plants would be subjected to deadly bacteria, which would be catastrophic to the crops come spring. They need the winter to survive. It seems counterintuitive since winter is a time of death, but they need the death in order for the next cycle of life to begin. It made me realize that everything God does is done for a reason. He created the seasons and made all creation (including us) to need each season as we go through life.
Maybe you are in your winter and are unsure why. You want to rush through and get to the first day of spring, but God is using this as a time to ready you for what is ahead. You would not be able to excel in the spring unless you learned in the winter. That is not to say it is easy; the winter is tough, but it is tough for a reason. This is not God punishing you; this is God maturing you for what is next.
When we appreciate the winter we also learn not to treat it like it’s our summer. There are times in the summer when I go running twice a day because I have the energy and daylight to do so. Now? I haven’t been able to run for almost two weeks. It’s dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home, not to mention there is still a foot of snow on the road. I can not be as physical as I would like to be, but I can rest more, which I deeply need. God knows our bodies best, and if I try to treat the cold winter like it’s the warm summer; I am going against the natural order of things.
Don’t take this as an excuse to put aside all physical health in the winter, but take it as a way to show yourself grace. You don’t have as much energy, you don’t have a clear path, you can’t spend as much time outside and take advantage of that! This is the one time of year when the earth is not expecting much from you other than to tend to your body and what it needs.
Song of Solomon 2:11-13 says, “Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone. The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air. The fig trees are forming young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming, Rise up, my darling!”
One thing is for sure- Spring will come. That much is promised: there will come a time when you will feel it in your bones; it is time to move, it is time to run, but right now, listen to the season you are in and take the time to fill yourself with His goodness so when the time comes, you are ready for the next season.
You cannot force it to be summer right now, no matter how hard you try. So give yourself time to enjoy where you are at, live for now, and in the future, you will see why your winter was so critical to your personal growth.