Seasons

A week or two ago we were at a friend's house for supper.  They have a lovely home and warm hospitality.  As we sat down to eat I noticed a series of pictures on the wall.  Each one had a tree in a different season.  My husband asked them which one represented where they were in their journey at the moment.  They decided that they were in the springtime season at the moment, not yet fully blooming but showing loads of promise, past the dark winter that they had recently experienced.
Our host made a comment that resonated in my spirit.  He said, "The season will change whether you want it to or not."  For me that is good news today.  We are living in a very dreary winter, problems are piled high and it is very cold, lonely and bleak in my spirit, yet the promise of spring remains.  This season will pass and we will enter a time of newness and budding and promise.  For now, we wait, still alive in there somewhere even though it may not look like it on the outside.
Every season has a beginning and an end.  It is glorious to feel the summer sun on your face and smell the fragrance of  flowers in bloom.  We sigh contentedly as we watch the summer flowers droop and fade, full of watermelon and lemonade.  Autumn brings a crispness to the air and it is immensely satisfying to see the harvest come in. There is beauty even in the longest of winters, branches dripping with hoarfrost, diamonds sparkling in whiteness. Then the warmth comes back and the snow gives way to mud and a glimmer of green.  I look forward to the excitement of spring again, it will come, it may be a long way off yet, but thank God, it will come.