“Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.” Psalm 62:5 NLT
What is it about winter that makes the world go quiet? Flakes flutter down from the sky blanketing the world below in a muted silence. Something about walking in it (hoping and praying you don’t slip, mind you) seems to awaken a sense of slowing down, taking your time or maybe even opting for the scenic route. There is a beauty to winter that is a beauty all its own. Watching the snow deepens our understanding that winter has come, and winter blankets us into muffled silence and submission.
But what do we do in a winter without snow?
I grew up with the seasonal cue of snow to remind me that winter had come. It brought about a slower pace, a different kind of play, and the invitation for things to go dormant and quiet. However, the older I’ve gotten we’ve lived in places with little to no snow, and something in me questions where winter is. Are we still allowed to get quiet? To hunker down? To have a snow day?
I hope so.
There’s something about a quiet season that isn’t always easy for us, even though it is a necessity as the year turns. Just because things may or may not be muffled under a bed of fluffy white powder, doesn’t mean life isn’t at work or that God isn’t working either. When things go quiet on the surface, real work begins below. Some things die. Some things decay. And some things have to be let go of to make space for the life that is to come.
All seasons have their purpose, right? Where would we be without the cozy of fall, the shoots of hope in spring and the fireworks of summer? There is beauty and purpose to each one. But if I’m honest (and maybe you too) I’ve often shied away from the winters of my life. The other seasons can seem more exciting, have more personality and are full of their own kind of fun. Winter can be kind of blustery, boring and well…..bleh.
Sometimes bleh has a purpose.
There is an invitation to what God is doing in the quiet of winter just like there is in every other season. It’s OK for the pace of life to slow. For the world to get blanketed and to allow some things to fall away, decompose and become the rich soil bed for the new thing God is doing. The truth is, there is a lot of hard work to be done in the quiet seasons. It may seem cold, unfeeling, or even frozen, but there is reason in each season. We may not see it or understand it, but quiet seasons are the bedrock of where real faith begins. There’s no sprigs sprouting up, or raging parties being thrown or magical leaves cascading to the ground. Instead, the unseen takes the center stage, and true faith, belief even when we can’t see it, goes to work.
Just because it’s quiet doesn’t mean life isn’t at work. And just because a season seems cold, or hardened doesn’t mean God isn’t at work. There is purpose in every season, even if you can’t hear it in the quiet. Psalm 62 rings true “Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.”
So much love,
Joy