My main winter joys

Winter has arrived. The trees in the little park that I visited frequently and enjoyed all summer long stand naked now, their bare arms stretched out as though they are mourning the colourful leaves that left them. These leaves, after their summer lustre and brilliance of fall, now lie as a soggy mass on the ground.

The wind, that all summer whispered so friendly through its leaves, has become very unfriendly now and has chased all the trees’ feathery friends away. The music from the birds that I always heard in that little park is gone, too. On top of that, the delicious scent – each season with its own smell and so delightful to the senses – is also gone.

As it is with the tree, so it is with me. I have lived through my spring, summer and fall and have arrived in winter now. I am even past the fourscore years that the psalmist speaks of as “being the age of the very strong.” And I am much like the barren tree. My outward lustre is gone. Life has become sad, for like the birds that left the tree, many of my friends have left me also.

But there is still joy!

For God, who is my best friend, has not left me! He has been with me through all the seasons of my life. And in that mass of soggy, dirty leaves underneath the trees, I see all my sins that God has stripped from me, all the sins of my long life – just as he stripped the tree of its leaves. Though it’s hard to believe, those dirty leaves still have a task: to fertilize the soil for next spring. Likewise, even my sins have had a benefit; they brought about repentance in me, which led to forgiveness and brought me close to God again and again (II Cor 7:10). That’s what a tree in winter makes me think of!

From age to age, the same

In winter, the main joys of my life are God’s mercy and his grace. Another one is the joy of God’s creation! I have always loved nature, but it seems that I enjoy God’s handiwork more than ever before, now that my earthly life is running to an end.

With all the disasters and evil happening in the world today, it brings comfort to know that God’s creation remains the same. It’s an awesome sight to watch the clouds sailing through the skies, pushed by a wind from an unknown place. And when I look up at the night sky, I marvel at God’s wondrous works, which have stayed in place since he created the world! “When I consider your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place . . .” (Ps. 8:3). God’s creation has not changed, despite the ways that we have spoiled it. But even so, there is hope!

Because very early in the spring, I will start watching the trees closely again. I will look at the dormant buds that were there all winter and will see them slowly, so very slowly, open up. There is new life in the now barren tree!

As there is in me! Every Fall, I wonder if I will see another Spring on this earth. But even if I don’t, I will see eternal spring in heaven. Sometimes I wonder how heaven could be more beautiful than God’s creation on earth. But we are told that it will be: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

In the meantime, I will continue to live in winter. All is not sad in my winter. There are still many things I enjoy. And even though my strength is diminishing, I find comfort in God’s Word: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 27:1).