In the Stillness

I love the beauty of the seasons, but if the truth is to be admitted - I am a summer girl. I love the warmth of the sun on my skin, the bluest sky above as the clouds float lazily by, the coolness of the green grass under my bare feet. I get lost in those summer days. Every moment I am able, I spend them outside basking in the gloriousness of the season and during each winter month that passes, I ache for the return of my blessed summer days.

This year we have been presented with an unprecedented snowfall. It is always exciting to see those first few snow flakes fall in the early morning hours through a tree’s bare branches illuminated by the street lamp - God’s gift of beauty for me through the unbearable cold months as I await the first warm spring day. But I have realized, it is in the waiting and longing that I find God and His splendor in the little gifts He deposits along the way. Our four foot total accumulation of the last few weeks has slowly melted to less than a foot. When my husband came home from work on Friday, he excitedly told me, “I saw grass today. A small patch. And it was green.” I was filled with joy because we both knew what this meant. The warm weather is creeping in. This morning, I saw my hyacinths have begun to push through the hard winter soil and in the last remnants of snow there was a spot of green at the top of the bulb - a word from God telling me to “hang on, Spring is almost here, and Summer will soon be yours to enjoy.” And so I wait, for a little while longer, with anticipation of another summer to come. Patience may be a virtue, but it is not one of my finer qualities. God knows this all too well because He made me. He instilled this quality in me for a future purpose that has yet to be revealed to me. For now, He teaches me.

It is in the waiting I am learning to be still. It is in the stillness I am learning to hear Him and it is in the hearing of the words that He speaks to my heart that He tells me He knows what I need to be happy. In the patches of green still surrounded by the melting snow, in those hyacinths pushing through the winter ground, in the lengthening of the days - I realize our lives are filled with seasons of advent and it is those seasons that teach me the patience I need to wait on God in my daily life. This patience matures me so that God’s purpose for my life will be more complete. The blessings come from my obedience to Him, but it is through these gifts, I understand that I am His child and He delights in my happiness.