Alleluia!
By Debbonnaire Kovacs, April 1, 2015 This week’s devotion is an excerpt from my book, Forty Ways My Labyrinth is Like My Life. This book grew from 40 tweets, written in 2011, so the weather referred to is not specifically relevant. It contains a later note from the 2013-14 winter, when it was made into a book. This past winter, where I live in Kentucky, was fairly mild until February, during which month it crammed in all the nasty winter storms it could think of.
The point, of course, is that soul weather does not necessarily mirror earth weather. We can feel great when weather outside is horrible, or feel horrible when weather outside is great. No matter how we feel, Jesus is still risen, and still loves to shine forth from our hearts. (And I’d like to make a special shout-out to our friends in the southern hemisphere, who are just now heading for winter. May it be a blessing to you, no matter what the sky does!)
- Winter ALWAYS turns to spring. A blessed Easter Resurrection to all!
Sometimes it doesn’t seem like it. We’ve had some winters in recent years that made me think spring was never coming back again. The ones I hate the most are the ones that are long, hard, cold, gloomy, but you survive them, and wait with bated breath for the thaw. . .
and the thaw comes, and the crocuses come up . . .
and you’re just starting to release your breath and sing praises. . .
—–and a deep freeze from you-know-where sets in!
(Do they have deep-freezes you-know-where?)
The thermometer dips into single digits, the crocuses shrivel up (you can hear them crying), the clumps of daffodils wish they could change their minds and tunnel back down, and robins sit on branches, puffed up into little balls, shivering and discussing their Florida winter in annoyed chirpings.
This winter wasn’t like that at all, where I live. The thermometer hung out in the 50s and 60s with some forays into the 70s. Sunshine was often in evidence. We had, if I recall correctly, two winter days in November, two or three in January, about a week in February, and that was it. It was pleasant, but unnerving. Are we also going to be 30 degrees above normal in July?! [Later note: Yup. It was nasty!] Once again, we missed spring, but in a different way. During about one week in March, everything from crocuses to lilacs and tulips bloomed, and that was it. 80s. Welcome to summer, and you’re going to have to hire someone with a Real Mower to do the labyrinth park before you can even ride the mower around it.
Life is the same way. You can sit in cold and gloom and dark until you’re pretty sure the sun will never shine again. Your heart lifts in wary hope at every sign of God’s glory leaking through the clouds, and then plunges in despair when the next calamity strikes. Is it worth it? Or everything seems unnervingly Nice, and you try to enjoy the gift of each day without looking too deeply into its mouth or waiting for the other shoe to fall. (Was that enough metaphors for you? I could throw in something about tempting fate, the sword of Damocles, or maybe Murphy and his infamous Law!)
Here’s what I’ve learned: Spring always comes. Always. Always. Eventually. Really. Hold on, and wait for the Resurrection. Not just the Big One, in the Sky By and By, but the little, daily resurrections that God sends in the midst of the doom and gloom. And meanwhile, do enjoy the bright days. And don’t look in their mouths.
CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!!
