The Beauty of Winter

​Every season of the year has its own unique beauty and purpose in life. This truth came to visit me on Monday morning when I looked out the window and saw the trees around our property encased in ice. Every tree branch was covered in crystal and shown like diamonds as the sun rose in the sky. God used these trees to speak to me of His splendor and remind me that "there is a time and season for every activity under heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1) He works in our lives in unique ways according to the season we are living in.
 
In the plant kingdom, winter is a season of rest. Without rest the trees would not be able to go through another year. Winter is a time of restoration from the year before and preparation for the year to come. Dormancy is part of the normal growth cycle. Arborists say that cold winters are better than warm ones for trees, because the cold is effective in killing insect eggs or diseases. This allows the trees to emerge in the spring ready to sprout new growth without hindrances from prior year's problems.
 
How have you experienced the winter seasons in your life? You may ask, "What does that look like for me?" These seasons are when we feel stripped of security or the familiar. This could happen through the death of a loved one, a breakup of a friendship, the loss of a job, financial difficulties, the completion of a major project, or confusion over the purposes in our lives. This is a time when it is wise to drive our spiritual roots deeper into the soil of God's presence by reading His Word, being still before Him, worshiping, and praying. God frequently uses winter seasons to give us dreams and visions and inspirational thoughts. Like the tree, we must use the winters of our lives as a time of rest. It is time to reset our focus on God's plans for our future and to shake off the difficulties of the past.
 
God never wastes a season. The Holy Spirit uses winter to teach us lessons from the past and help prepare us for what He may be doing in the next season. A winter activity for those who grow trees is pruning. Without its leaves, the structure of a tree is clear, and the pruner can see how to remove excess growth and unhealthy branches so that the tree is well shaped and strengthened. A Biblical passage in John 15 compares Jesus to a vine and explains how Father God prunes Him. "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful...No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15 1-5)
 
Like the trees encased in ice, when the Holy Spirit uses the winters of our lives to train us and give us revelation, we become more beautiful. That is because the light of our Lord begins to shine from us as we draw closer to Him, and we radiate His beauty to others. In the quieter seasons of winter, it is important for us to draw close to the Lord and focus on what He is doing with us. As He draws us closer to Himself, we must let the Holy Spirit do His work. He will blow through our limbs and the caverns of our minds to cleanse and refresh and prepare us for a fruitful future.