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

Valley Storms

To be completely honest, I struggled over how to write this blog post.  It is adapted from a old journal entry and every time I took it out of the “first person experience” for this blog, it lost a good part of its meaning and sounded like rhetoric…so I didn’t.  I don’t write it this way for consolation or sympathy but in hopes of putting voice to what I know is common to us all.

 

“I hope that you have had a blue-sky kind of day, even if it’s snowing.”

My friend sent those words as a greeting recently.  I honestly don’t know if she meant it literally or figuratively …probably both.  Her words struck me and were deeply meaningful.  I live in a part of California where a 90 minute drive east would bring me right into the snowy Sierra Nevada Mountains;  and a drive westerly for about the same amount of time,  would tumble me straight onto the sandy beaches and blue skies of the coast.  BUT I live in the valley.  It’s the in-between place where the clouds collect from the coastal ranges and pass through as they make their way up the mountains to drop their snow.  Winter here often looks drizzly, gray and foggy with the occasional warm day brining a sunny respite. However, when those respites hide themselves, it is not unusual for families to take a Sunday drive and “get above the clouds to find some sun for the day”.  After all, the soul needs it.

I’m finding myself in a soul-season that feels a lot like winter in The Valley.  Circumstances seem to be piling one upon the other like collected clouds between mountain peaks, and struggle falls like rain?  How does one have a blue-sky kind of day when the grey hovers so ostentatiously?  I don’t really want to read another verse about trials building perseverance and perseverance character, and character…blah blah blah.  I want to escape and take my soul on a Sunday drive to find some sun…But where?

I know that Isaiah reminds us to put our down-cast soul into the hopes of God (Ps 42).  And I know that, “He keeps track of all our sorrows, and has collected all our tears in his bottle, recording each one in His book.” (Ps 56:8).  Maybe the light dawns as we go limp for a while and weep, letting the clouds of our soul drop their tears, and perhaps the blue-sky kind of day comes about while we sit in the drizzle of the rain, held by the One who alone keeps track of it all….
 

… Maybe the best thing we can do at times is just sit somewhere in the valley, between the blue-sky and the snow, and let it rain. 

Will trials build perseverance?  Yes, if I stay in the trial and let God do his refining work in me.  That’s how perseverance leads to character; and the sheer amazement of that actually happening builds hope. And hope lifts our eyes above the clouds to see the abundant resources held in heavens courts awaiting our appeal.  (Rom 5)

If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves,… and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. - Romans 8:26-28

So if you find yourself longing for a blue-sky kind of day even if it's snowing outside, let it rain a bit.  Trust that the Spirit will hold you before God and work out the details, at His ready the clouds will clear, making Hope's harvest sure.