I am so glad that spring is here. Winter just doesn't have the luster to it that the other seasons do, at least not in Oklahoma. When the only color to see is brown, and you can't separate what's dead from what soon will be in bloom, it just doesn't seem to invoke the wonder that creation generally stirs up in me. Everything is harder, coarser, and the constant wind has a crispness and a hissing in the trees that keeps your collar up and head down. Maybe it's this that makes me love spring. In this contrast, the beautiful creation is so vibrant in the spring, colors stand out more, and the warm sun on your face makes it nearly impossible not to suck the fresh air through your nostrils and just smile in thankfulness that once again, the seasons have changed.
I saw a lizard for the first time in 2007 today. She reminded me of the rain that was soon to come. This rain will, along with the warm sun, bring life back into the flowers and trees. This same warm sun will bring back creation, in the way we always remember good times, colorful, smiling, and laughing. I guess when we seem to remember that the beauty of spring is so intensified by winter's bland cold.I've heard it explained that the reason that God allows evil in this world is that we would have no way of appreciating the good without their being bad to contrast it against. Sure, there are ways this can fall short in one's paradigm, but it does make sense that when we experience dark, it makes us glad when there is light. When we experience our parent's stern words, it makes their true expressions of love all the richer. And when we understand our depravity, it makes grace so much more profound. Contrast against a harsh background, we more fully appreciate the beautiful.
It was a good weekend, sitting around a campfire with a group of men from various professions, talking about what God wants to show us within ourselves, within the community we call the church, and in the bigger community we call humanity. I enjoyed seeing fear turn to delight in a fifty year old man as he learned to trust in the system we provided to safely rappel down a cliff. It was good to remember that the seasons change and God is faithful. He's set this thing in motion and we can expect that every year, just as he intended, about this time we'll start to see the lizards again.
Steven
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- compasswilderness
- Compass Wilderness is an outdoor ministry focused on sharing Christ through adventure activities. With locations in Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado we offer groups the opportunity to rock climb, rappel, hike, raft, camp and ski in a safe, professional environment.
1 comment:
Hey brother... thanks for the reminder that the seasons change... ALL OF THEM. I sometimes need to be reminded that winter is a temporary thing, being that it lasts and lasts up here in Ohio. It is almost long enough to make me forget the beauty of spring, the peaceful, gentle winds of summer, and the breathtaking view of the colors changing in fall. There are also days that I forget to take delight in the beauty of winter. Here everything is generally snow-covered for weeks or months at a time, because it rarely gets warm enough that anything will melt. Pretty and white and snow covered. But everything is also very quiet. No leaves to rustle when the wind blows, no water running in the streams and rivers. Just ice and snow and silence. Silence that reminds me that I need to be still and listen to God's voice, and remember that He is all around us in winter, too.
In the middle of this season of my life, I sometimes forget that it is temporary, that I won't always be here, this far from my family. That I won't always have to use the telephone just because I want to hear the sound of my brother's laugh. That I will one day be able to hold my sister's children whenever I want. That I won't always measure the miles in thousands. But I need to remember that God is all around me in this season, too. He has given me a wonderful church to belong to and minister in, a loving surrogate family in my friends, and he is blessing me every day in a million other ways that I ignore way to often. Seasons will change, whether we want them to or not, but God is visible in EVERY season. Thanks again for the reminder. I love you.
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