The Promise Of New Life

    Image ©Mark Faulkner 2011

The problem with winter is not that it's so cold—but that it is so long.

My soul longs for that wonderful season when everything becomes alive once again—bursting with the amazing aromas and colors of spring. A time when the sky is never more blue. And the clouds never so bold and dazzling white.  That wonderful time when you can leave your windows open at night and drift away into slumber on the soft breezes of April blossoms and May showers. A time when there are more shades of green being unveiled than you knew even existed.

A time of hope and renewal—and once again... the promise of new life.

In your marriage, your heart and your life are you suffering through the long, dark, cold days of winter? 

Please, fellow sojourner, try to hold on for just a little while longer; for there is hope—Spring is coming. 

A line from one of my favorite movies goes like this:

"There were two farmers.  Both desperately prayed for rain.  But only one farmer prepared his field to receive it.  Which farmer are you?"

How do you prepare your field to receive the rains of spring?

First, you have to break up the fallow ground—the hard packed soil that cannot receive seed in it's present state.  Seed cannot be planted and take root in soil that is not broken up.

Next, you have to plant the seed.  You feed it with nutrients, being on guard for parasites and pests that will snatch up and destroy what you have planted.

Then you wait.

And wait.

You cannot make it rain—all you can do is pray for rain.

"Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain." (James 5:7)

Here in the Pacific Northwest, the snows and dormancy of winter are part of the cycle of life.  Snow falls in the mountains, melting at the first hint of spring, tiny rivulets of water flow down to form creeks, which flow into mighty rivers; ultimately joining together to arrive at the Pacific Ocean.  As the season of winter approaches, storms form in the ocean and rise above the Cascades, which blanket the mountains with fresh snow, and thus begins the cycle of life once again.

Nearly three thousand years ago the Hebrew prophet Isaiah wrote: 

“For as the rain comes down,

And the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

(Isaiah 55: 10-11)

Here is an encouraging passage of scripture that personally has become very meaningful to my wife and I:

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end."  (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

We cannot see the Life-giving seeds that God has planted in the broken soil of men's and women's hearts.  We can only prepare our own field, and we pray to the Rain Maker for His rain. 

And then we wait. 

Winter is almost over.  The night is far spent.  And though our sorrow may last for the night, joy comes in the morning.

Spring is coming!

—God is Love and Love Never Fails.