Winter & Resurrection Sunday

Winter drags on and on and Spring seems like it will never arrive. Did the life-giving Spring die? To me, every Fall is like Good Friday: a glorious and beautiful display of death with the promise of new life in due season. Winter is like the day of grieving before the Lord’s overcoming on Resurrection Sunday – Spring, revival, new life.

I can only imagine the despair that those who loved Jesus felt on Good Friday. They watched their Savior and friend die a long and drawn out, painful death. They doubted, they feared that everything they hoped for died with him. They didn’t know what was coming two days later even though Jesus promised them the grave wouldn’t hold him.

Are you in a season in your life where you feel like you’re in the Winter, the day between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday? I’ve felt that way. Here’s a bit of what God is teaching me about seasons in life…

One of my friend’s instagram posts a few weeks ago reminded me of a life lesson I’ve recently learned. I was so struck by the similarity of the message and theme, even down to the exact words, of the “lesson” she shared to my own that it’s been in the forefront of my mind and echoing through my heart since I saw her post. With the re-occurrence of this theme being put in front of me I wonder whether this is an important lesson that God is trying to teach us, or maybe just me right now, in this winter season.

Personally, I always struggle in the wintertime after new years. Every year seems harder than the last. With the exception of a time to rest and cozy up with my loved ones, everything that I love belongs to the Spring, Summer, and Fall. So I tend to find myself sink into  seasonal slump brought on by cold temperatures, less sunlight, sporadic interactions with friends and loved ones, and a slow time in my business. I’m sure many of you can relate.

We all go through seasons in our lives that can be likened to the physical seasons. Some life-seasons can even overlap. We can be reaping a bountiful harvest in one area of our lives, yet be frozen in another area simultaneously. I have difficulty recognizing the season that I’m in until I move out of it and into another one. In a way, I’m stepping out of a very long winter season of my life, yet I am also experiencing a harvest of blessings too! Over the past five years I’ve met and married my wonderful husband and best friend. We were blessed with a wonderful home. We had our first child are are expecting our second this summer. That is certainly a harvest of blessings!

All the while there was still a winter.

I’ve had a relationship with God my whole life. He seemed completely absent during difficult times (though He wasn’t). It was rocky at times, I strayed from Him, He mercifully brought me back. A lot of damage happened to my heart during those times. Honestly, no one can grow up and escape their heart being wounded by the world. Recently God is teaching me more and more about Himself and in doing so He has been healing many wounded areas of my past that kept me from flourishing in every aspect of my life. He’s setting me free.

The past five plus years have been a wintertime for me spiritually and emotionally. I believe God allowed me to be somewhat isolated so that I would draw close to Him and He could romance my heart and teach me what Love truly is. I couldn’t and can’t bear fruit in my life without growing my roots down deep into Him and remaining there.

Galatians 5: 22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Did you know that it is in the wintertime, when plants and trees of all kinds appear to be dead, that actually all of their energy is being focused into growing their roots deeper into the soil? They grow deeper and deeper each year to reach more ground water in order to produce more fruit and withstand drought and wind. God does this with us seasonally too. Sometimes our wintertime is a season of struggle, grief, or simply just the need for rest and time spent with our Creator. God uses these challenging times to grow our roots deeper into Him and His love so that we might, in due season, produce a greater harvest than in our past.

There’s no greater harvest and joy than being a part of what God is doing in our lives and in the lives of others. He all about setting the captive free, loving the unlovable, and healing the broken. But we aren’t capable of doing any of that if we aren’t rooted in Christ.

John 15:1-17
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. (Italics added for emphasis).

I’ve learned to not despise the wintertime season, but rather embrace it and focus all my limited energy into growing my roots deeper into the love of my Creator and Savior. All God asks of us is to lift our empty hands and willing hearts to Him. Bring whatever you have, whether it’s much or little, and He will multiply it many times over! Hold on friend, Resurrection Sunday – Springtime is coming in your life, and it is glorious!

Colossians 2:6-7
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Ephesians 3:16-19
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.