Summer AND Winter

I get it. I’m not a fan of freezing cold temperatures, scraping windshields, warming up car engines, or wearing multiple layers. My preferred, go-to clothing for the day is simply my favorite pair of shorts, a long sleeve t-shirt, and my Sperry Topsiders worn without socks. I hate when snow blows down my neck, and there’s something about winter that seems to make life harder.

Feeling trapped with cabin fever, it seems the house walls close in as the days of January tick by. Call it the winter blues or another name, I pine for the long June evenings and the light that seems to last forever. Fireflies. Campfires. Green grass. Open windows.

I used to dread even the thought of winter. In ways, I still do. Yet I have a very good Heavenly Father, and one day He showed me a doorway of freedom from the seasonal dismay I suffered from. I was reading the Bible—His living Word—and a verse appeared to jump right off the page and poke me in the eye. Maybe it touched my heart instead, but I now know that God cares, because the simple verse changed me.

Psalm 74:17 says “You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;

you have made summer and winter.”

And many people may read it just as that. But when I saw that God made summer AND winter, I paused—because God doesn’t make mistakes. If the Creator designed winter as good, then perhaps I was missing something.

Since then, I’ve set out to find the beauty of winter. I look hard. Search, actually. Diligently. With intentionality. And I’ve found that there are things about it that are unique, relaxing, exciting, and even enjoyable. I was missing out, and now I see that.

I challenge those who struggle with winter blues to do the same. Leave a comment with how this verse has changed a negative perspective of the hardships of the winter season. Look for the beauty. God has placed it everywhere.