The Winter is Past!

In January much of England was under a thick blanket of snow which remained for nearly two weeks in some parts. When the snow finally melted in our garden, I noticed some little snowdrops which had pushed their way up through the hard ground and had been flowering under the snow. These delicate little flowers were tough enough to flourish even in such harsh conditions and were a sign that springtime was to follow.

Sometimes in our Christian lives it seems as if we are in a winter season, when nothing appears to be happening and the circumstances seem very hard. If you are feeling like that today, be encouraged. God always wants to bring new growth in our lives and to give us new beginnings, in the same way as spring follows winter.

With plants and trees there needs to be a dying back of the old before the new growth can emerge. We sometimes also need to go through such a time in our lives. Often there is much happening below the surface during winter in preparation for the new growth. Similarly in our lives, even when there appears to be nothing happening, God can be at work preparing us for the new season.

Today’s verses from Song of Songs tell us to see that the winter is past and a new season has come. Perhaps God wants to encourage you by saying the same to some of you today. The exhortation is then: ‘Arise, come, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me’ (Song of Songs 2:13b). God may be calling you today to rise up out of the passive ‘winter’ season of your life and to go on with Him, in the intimacy of relationship that we can have with Him, into a new season of growth and fruitfulness.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You that You are always at work in my life, even when I don’t feel anything happening. I want to rise up now and come with You into all that You have for me, and I pray that it will be a new season of fruitfulness with You. Amen.