Spring always makes me happy. I look forward to seeing the leaves opening, the crocuses blooming against the late snow, the daffodils stubbornly shooting out into the cold, the tulips defying winter and declaring the coming spring. I relish that first breath of spring, a still-cold breeze that smells of earth and rain. The day I smell spring is the day that I begin to shake off the winter numbness and feel alive again.
Maybe you identify with these sentiments. The stretching of our limbs, the waking up of our souls is a welcome relief from the restful winter.
God's fingerprints are all over this pattern of new life coming from death.
After the season of rest comes a season of growth. The waking up from that rest can be painful and sometimes unwelcome, but with that change comes a new season--one of learning, growing, and shooting out in the bitter cold of life.
God is using your season of rest--not so that you can become lazy and lethargic--but to prepare you for the next growth in your life.
This can be scary, but while we dread the difficulty of blooming against the snow, we also recognize that it is a beautiful thing.
The old adage is "you can let life make you bitter or better." This is true of the "winter seasons" in our lives. Did winter embitter you? Or did it cause you to become better, to bloom against all odds?