Monday was such a nice, warm day here with temps in the 80's. That's so not normal for February in Oklahoma! I wore shorts and a t-shirt to the gym, bagged up leaves from the driveway, pruned my rose bush and cleaned out my flower bed in the front. I loved every minute of it..being outside, thinking about what I wanted to do for more flowers, cleaning up stuff that had been on my list to do for a while....it felt good. (Side note....I tend to want to hibernate in the winter cold. Everything in me says no thank you!)
Then....Tuesday came. Temperatures were in the 40's, it was misty, and the wind was cold. Ugh! What happened!
I started thinking about Spring and the process of transitioning from winter to spring. It doesn't just happen...seamlessly....effortlessly. The earth groans to bring forth new life. There are weeks of ups and downs. Some days are warm, some are not. Some days are stormy, some days are mild. It reminds me of the labor of childbirth. We struggle to give birth to the new life that has been growing within us, slowly being prepared to enter the world and begin the next chapter, the next season.
Life is like that too. We have an idea of how we think things should be, the dreams and goals of the things we want, the disappointment of the things that didn't come to pass, and the disappointment of the way we thought life would be but didn't turn out the way we hoped. We have joys too, when we receive unexpected blessings, care from friends....family....community, seeing the beauty in God's creation when He opens our eyes to see what we didn't notice before.
It's tempting to become disheartened in the struggles. Then the doubts come....is there something wrong with me? It must be someone else's fault, God doesn't care, does He exist at all? I know. I struggle with the same things.
My encouragement to us all is....hang in there. Spring is coming. God sees, He cares, you are perfect just the way you are, you matter, and other people are image bearers of the One who created them. Struggles are just part of living in a broken world with broken people who do broken things. You're not alone. New life is coming. It may not look the way you think it will, there may be ups and downs, there may be storms... but it is coming. Look for it. Dare to hope again. Dare to trust again. Dare to try. Dare to believe.
Michelle
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