w i n t e r , c o m e

"And that harvest is what brings on blessed winter, that season of rest in God that makes for the new seed of the Spirit to be planted come springtime." -Ken Helser

Today is the first day of winter. We may not get a white christmas in these Tennessee Hills, but for now there is a slight chill that keeps me content underneath my beanie. In the coming days, there is a call to rest and prepare for what lies ahead. There is no way to predict what the season may hold (especially in Tennessee). But does it ever feel like the rest gives way to a feeling of emptiness? It feels bleak and dark and without life. Even the trees agree.

What if it wasn't emptiness that our rest was uncovering? What if it's the stronghold of life enduring the harshest of winter? What if we just haven't been awaken to the life within yet?

What if rest is exposing the life within?

I know what my heart wants, but I also know what it needs. It wants ease and simplicity - a light and airy day that resembles summertime. But I know what it needs. It needs the awakening and the stirred moments. Eyes wide open. It needs the clarity of winter.

It's no secret that this season has been hard for me. The death of my grandfather was an unexpected turn in the harvest season. I was expectant for fruit to be present and a comforting warmth to cover me as the chill slowly set in. but it didn't happen like that. and I was faced with a choice. I could stand in the despair and watch as it took me down or I could rise with confidence that the Sower has prepared for the coming winter.

I may not have been prepared. but He was/is/always will be.

We are all faced with this choice at sometime or another. In the midst of pain, I did not want to choose clarity. but my Father has been working and that's the only way I'm going to be able to see it. Clarity has been exposing the life of Him in me.

All this to speak into the life within. Come awake oh sleeper. Feel the cold on your back. Open your eyes wide. Sit in the clarity that His presence has provided. Remember that even in the dead of winter - you are alive. so alive.

winter, come. bring a new perspective to see our world, to see our circumstances. Jesus, you are the hope in all of this. and now I feel it - the warmth in the chill, the ease of a season meant for rest, the moment of exposed life. the thing my heart needs most.

Em


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