There is an ongoing saga at our house about how much my four-year-old son does not want to wear pants, he only wants to wear shorts. The blessing and the curse of living here in Middle Tennessee is that as the winter winds down, we can be teased with beautiful, warmer weather and then within a matter of days (or sometime hours) we’re right back down into freezing temps. This morning on the way to preschool, my son had had enough.
“MOMMY, WHY DID GOD MAKE WINTER LAST SO LONG?!,” he bemoaned from the back seat of the car. I took a beat to think about my response. “Well, buddy,” I began, “apparently the world isn’t finished with its rest.” In the rearview mirror, I could see tears in his eyes, frustration evident all over his face and an expression that expected a more thorough explanation. I reminded him about how hard the trees, the flowers, even our backyard garden work to make fruit, leaves, vegetables, flowers and all sorts of amazing things for most of the year. “The winter is God’s provision for them to rest, but it’s almost time for them to wake up.” He seemed to think about this for a little bit. “Like humans?” he asked. “Yes, buddy, like humans.” I said, “can you imagine what a mess we would be if we didn’t rest at night?” We went on to talk about how tired, cranky, and sickly we might be if we never gave our bodies time to recover. God made all of His creation with a need for rest.
We also talked about a television show he had seen that showed how the world travels in a circle around the sun and we just weren’t quite finished with our circle that brings us closer to the sun. “We’re getting closer!” I assured him, “but it’s just not quite time for everything to fully wake up and be warm every day. But we’re so close.”
As he seemed to ponder these things to himself, I thought about how my own soul could do with more sun, longer days, and Spring which reminds us that things do not always stay dead. God sews the hope of His resurrection everywhere.
Just when I thought we’d come to a semi-satisfied-for-now conclusion, I received one more exclamation from the back seat: “WHY CAN’T WE JUST STAY NEAR THE SUN ALL THE TIME?” I laughed a little out loud this time despite myself. It’s a fair question, and truthfully, I think it echoes the heart cries of so many that I know. Who isn’t weary of this season of life, literally or metaphorically? Who isn’t longing for good news, light and the birth of what is beautiful instead of being surrounded by what appears to be cold and dead? As I pulled into the parking lot of his preschool, I said “Buddy, if we were close to the sun all the time, the people on the other side of the earth would only ever have winter. They’d never have a chance to enjoy the sun.”
I can’t stop thinking about what all of this meant to me, and maybe you need to hear it too:
God designed creation to rest. In that rest, while things may look lifeless, dull or even dead, that’s not the case. In winter seasons, there is possibility for regeneration, new growth, and shedding what was keeping us from growing the way we were made to. Just like the three days Jesus spent in the grave, God was moving. Resurrection, spring and new life were on the way.
There are going to be seasons where we are living in a hopeful place of spring. A place where things are finally better than they were and we see new growth. But while we’re in that season, others may be in winter, and vice-versa. God moves in His creation in all seasons, all the time. His hope, His work, His provision of rest and growth never stops. We’re almost always on the verge of rest or resurrection, and He is good in both.
Emily Humphries is a woman who loves Jesus, her family, words, and coffee (all though things don't honestly always run in that order.) She loves sharing about the activity of God in her life, learning, and creating space for others to gather around the table and share their experiences and stories too. You can hang out with Emily over on her blog, or her podcast Simply Stories via https://simplyshenanigans.com. Connect with her over on Facebook and Instagram, @simplyemhumph/ @simplystoriespodcast.
