Winter's Awakening

“The word of the LORD came to me, What do you see, Jeremiah?  I see the branch of an almond tree, I replied.  The LORD said to me, You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled”. Jeremiah 1:11-12

Today my husband and I took a short drive into a small sleepy town where time has stood still for decades and echoes of the past find voice in creaky wooded pathways and linger along the dusty streets amid bricked storefronts. 

Strangely, almost intuitively, such towns seem to find the heart and call it backwards... Where life's history and the invitation of tomorrow mingle with hesitant sway as they distance one from the other in this space called Now.   There is such sentiment and comfort in the familiar....  Do I dare let it go for the new?  Lord, I am so tired of the wait!  Can I trust the fall of abandon into the unknown? Is it any worse than the tension of the "in between"? Will winter ever awaken?

As my husband and I walked on, we found our way through the town and off the beaten path where meadows have sanctioned the birdsong and the rivers flow in glad submission…it all sounds beautiful, doesn’t it?  And it was!  But I am leaving out the part where the jacket tied around my waist kept falling and slowing me down, or the part where I grew tired and still needed to forge on; or the part where it was not green and lush grass but instead rocky and uneven.   It was truly a lovely hike but not without “stuff”.  I watched our shadows as we walked...this is the picture of journey.  Sometimes we linger in quiet consolation like the birdsong in the meadow, and life plays out in glad submission.  And sometimes the road is unpaved & narrow with rocks and crags to navigate along the way.  Sometimes we carry burdens that require extra attention, weighing us down as we make each step with fierce intention.  Other times we pause to remember life as it changes and unfolds into something new.  Even still there are moments along life's road where we feel a bit out of shape and a little too winded to carry on, but carry on we must...so we do. 

Whatever the season of the journey Heaven's resources are made available to us, affording us the grace needed to go the next step; like the manna given to God's children as they journeyed the dessert wilderness making their way to the Promised Land - God's watchful shepherd's-eye brings his presence near and becomes our consolation.  As we reached the last few feet of our hike we were greeted by a wild almond tree in full-bIoom.  It imposed itself upon us as if to say, “Stop…drink in winter’s awakening!”  I was glad for the reminder that winter’s solstice only lasts for a night and trees that go dormant in the cold, will again blossom under God’s cosmic warmth and light.

What did I see today?  I saw HOPE.  Not in circumstances, for they will always be unpredictably keen upon themselves, but in the watchful wait as the One who holds the circumstances sees to it that His word is made complete in and through us as He pens each chapter of our story and graciously joins it with the best and truest story ever told…His.  

"Look!  I am making everything new!"  Rev. 21:5