This too shall pass

     What a difference a week makes.  From this--

     To this...all in a mere seven days time--

     You gotta love living in North Carolina where such wild gyrations in weather and temperature are always possible!  One week ago, we enjoyed a cold but peaceful evening walk on the greenway with Bingley.  It was after 8:00 p.m. so it should have been pitch black dark.  Yet the reflection of the snow all about us lighted the path so that we were able to walk as if it were broad daylight.  Remarkable.  Here's Mr. Bingley that night.  This was around 8:30p.m.!

    Remarkable the power of the snow's reflection, isn't it?
    But at about the same time exactly one week later, we saw folks eating outside at a local restaurant and enjoying the balmy spring-like temperatures.   From winter, snow, and ice all the way to spring, sun, and warmth--all in one short week!  Maybe I'm just a goofball, but, wow, that really struck me.
     In the midst of winter, it helps to remember that spring is coming.  That winter will not last forever...even when we feel like it will.  Winter has it's day...but spring will inevitably have hers as well.  Sure, it's a simple truth, but in the midst of the relentless cold and mess, the boots and coats, the runny noses and cold hands, couldn't you sometimes use a little reminding?  No matter what it looks like, no matter how it seems at the moment, no matter how you might feel...winter's nearly over and spring is on it's happy way.
     Why is it that when we're slogging through a tough or challenging season of life, we tend to forget that?  Our feelings shout: she'll never change; he'll never get better; I'll never feel differently; this will never get easier; we'll never...you fill in the blank.
     But the truth is, everything changes.  Everything, that is, except our Almighty God and His infinite, relentless love for us.  No matter what we're enduring today, it's not going to last forever...and somehow, someway, we're going to come out on the other side.  And God will be with us through it all--in every season, with every challenge, through every mountain and valley.  
     So just in case you needed a little reminding--no matter how you might feel, no matter what "winter" you might be enduring, this too shall pass.  And spring is coming.  Sometimes we need to preach ourselves a little sermon.  Exhorting ourselves to hang on and hold on to God and trust that spring's coming...and it might be just around the corner.
     And God will be there too.  "But the great thing to remember," C.S.Lewis wrote, "if that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not."
    The hard times will end...but God's love never will.  Now that's reason to celebrate.
    To God be the glory.