The Winter of Life

The cold winds have arrived taking most of the leaves from the trees in our yard. The temperatures dropped through the night and snowflakes glistened as they fell softly to the earth. We begin to dread the ice and inches of snow that surely will come with the season.

Winter is here………….

Each season comes in God's timing. During the cold winter months, we can sit by the fire, watching the snow fall and dream of spring flowers and budding leaves.
 
Spring arrives………….

We plant gardens thinking somehow that will hurry the warm sun and gentle breezes. Kids bring out their kites, praying for enough March wind to take them up into the clouds.

Summer comes.............

Scorching sun beats down on our bodies; flip flops are dug out; cool shorts replace the sweat pants. Kids beg to go swimming; men hurry from work so they can play golf or watch their off spring play some sport.

Then fall…………….

“Can you believe fall has arrived?” we ask our friends. Kids bemoan the beginning of school while college students begin to pack up and head for their college dorms. Football games begin and thousands of fans line the bleachers, shouting wildly for their favorite team.

Then as in nature, the winter of our live is here.

When we are young, in the springtime of life, time seems to move very slowly. We gather our neighborhood friends in the nearest field to fly kites. We grab sweaters and play hide and seek in the twilight. We listen for the thunder as lightening crosses the sky and wonder if this is the night we will spend in our cellars. New calves are born; new babies are born into families to begin the springtime of their lives.

Summertime in our lives and we are busy with our growing families. Work takes up the majority of time for both mothers and fathers, and we never seem to slow down. We are frantically running a taxi service for our children, who seem to have a plethora of activities.

Then the fall of life..... Sometimes, we feel our job in life is finished now that our children are raised and off on their own beginning their own families. Life begins to slow down a bit and we find time for ourselves. Oh, we continue to work but it’s easier to get there on time with no kids to get off to school. On the weekends we travel to our kid’s college and watch football games with them. Or we make a trip to see our grandchildren.

Winter of life is here. How did it arrive so fast? Wasn’t it just yesterday we were playing with neighborhood kids? Wasn’t it just last month we were running a taxi service taking our kids here and there? Didn’t we just rock our children and grandchildren?

Winter……..a time to reflect on life; time to slow down and think about our past and wonder if what we have done in life amounts to anything. We have wrinkles; our steps are slow; our hearing isn’t as keen as it once was. Travel is something we would rather talk about than do. We still dread the ice, because of the inconvenience and because old people tend to fall in icy places.

Yes, the winter of life. Many of us who have reached that place wish we could go back and relive the many things we took for granted along the way. If we are Believers, we don’t dread death but we dread the pain that sometimes proceeds it. And, we don’t want to think about the inconvenience we might be to our children.

God has given us life. He knows the length of our days just as He knows the number of hairs on our head. And, He has promised to be with us whatever season we are in.

"For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels won’t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, or where we are—high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean—nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us." Romans 8:28-29 TLB