Beauty in the Seasons

The temperatures are around 40 degrees colder that my body is accustomed to. My fingers, toes, and nose continually call out for something to warm them. But I am loving it. I slip on a pair of gloves, scarf and boots and I'm content. 

Witnessing the splendor and majesty of God in the colors. The joy and peace that comes as another beautifully burnt-orange leaf falls to the ground. The excitement in the children's eyes as they pick up a pile of leaves and cause a shower of yellow, gold, and crimson to pour down on them in delight. It's a beautiful season.

As I look out my frosted window over the field plush with beauty, I am reflecting on the season past. The season with not-so-easily-seen beauty. The season in which it was hot and humid. Where I found myself struggling and hurting. At times crying and questioning. A season full of difficulties and challenges. And I am thankful. I am smiling.

I smile not because I am out of it {although the reprieve is certainly welcomed!}, but because I recognize the beauty that was in that season as well. The rugged beauty. The beauty in the brokenness. That every hardship, every suffering is not in vain, but is producing in me that which perpetual easy seasons could not: Christ-likeness. This truth stirs joy and endurance in my soul as I consider the gift that I am being "conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29). That I am being made more and more like the One my heart desires most.

I continue to gaze out over the field of endless trees, I watch another golden leaf trembling on a branch in the icy wind, ready to fall to the hard cold ground. I realize that I feel like that tree sometimes; being blown and tattered by the cruel frigid air and trying my best to desperately hold on to the delicate pieces of my life.

In those seasons, I must be careful to preach the truth to myself when my heart threatens to fall along with the leaves. My heart is strengthened and renewed by my Savior's life-giving, hope-sustaining Word, so I go to it for the strength that I so desperately need, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." (Romans 8:18). I remind myself that everything matters. Every joy, every pain, every season of trial, and every season of ease is meant to draw us closer to Jesus. To reveal even more of Himself to us...and in us. That we can see Him in every season of life. Whether in the highest joys or the darkest lows, and all those mundane in between. 

There is Beauty in every season. We need only to look.

"One thing I have asked of the LORD,  that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple. For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will lift me high upon a rock." Psalm 27:3-5

Can you see the beauty in the season you find yourself in now? If so, I'd love to hear about it!