Waiting for spring

I grew up with seasons. Summer meant warm days and daylight until around 10pm.  Fall meant the leaves changed to bright orange, yellow, and brown. In the winter the leaves fell and the trees were naked even though the rain was plentiful. Spring greeted us with the sun, the blooming flowers of bright pink, red, yellow and allergies. Winter and fall were the hardest because combined they lasted half the year which means cold, rainy, dark and naked for at least 6 months. If you were to join us during these seasons it would seem like it could go on forever. This is where the NW gets its reputation. We are defined by these two seasons, but many people forget that summer is gorgeous and spring is beautiful when the flowers burst forth with colors. How much more do we appreciate the fact that spring and summer follow fall and winter!

A dead tree and a dormant tree look the same on the outside. There are no leaves, the branches are naked, but if its dormant then you know when spring comes it will burst to life again. If all you have ever experienced is winter then the hope of spring is a myth. We do this with our lives sometimes mistaking the season of God we are in. We can easily mistake a dormant season for a dead one. If the tree is dead there is nothing going on in the inside no nutrients, no water, no life, no regeneration. However, in a dormant season the tree is still being nourished, fed, regenerated and preparing to come back to life, but you wouldn’t know it from just looking at it.

God’s silence is not His absence.

There are times we don’t see the work God is doing or even feel it. We question the lack of fruit and the lack of purpose, but what we don’t see can hurt us. We abandon the dream, the desire, or the calling thinking its dead, not having felt anything from it in a long time. We mistake a dormant season for a dead one, believing what was once colorful and awe inspiring no longer exists. We mourn in confusion and blame and then we walk away in disillusionment.

Then in our distress someone comes along, someone who has seen dormant trees before.  Someone who is familiar with the seasons and recognizes what we thought was dead is actually being regenerated, nourished, and refreshed. The creator is anticipating the moment it will spring forth again with vibrancy and beauty. This is how the tree was created; created to survive the seasons. We are reminded that spring is coming, that it always follows winter. Someone changes the way we view our lives, someone gives us a new perspective and with it comes new hope and new expectation. Someone comes alongside and says, “wait”, “let’s see”, “hold on.”

I believe the spring is coming. I’m waiting.  I’m holding on. I want to see. I can’t wait to hear “Behold, I’m doing and new thing. Now it shall spring up.”

God’s silence is not His absence.