I walked in the rain this morning. I mean it’s been raining for four days and making it difficult to get outside. I had a brief window to walk Wednesday morning while it stopped for a bit. I thought that was the case this morning as well but I was wrong. I walked the last mile and a half in a steady drizzle. I don’t particularly enjoy that, just in case you were wondering. It makes it extra cold and my clothes get wet. Worse, my shoes and socks get wet.
Despite the gray and rain and having to choose a different route because part of my usual trek was totally covered by water, I went anyway and just so happened to reach a milestone on the app that tracks my distance. I passed 100 kilometers for the year. Right now I’m at 65.1 miles. That’s 65 miles of January and February walking. It’s not always ideal conditions. But as I got back to my house I noticed something pretty special that I want to share with as many people as I can. Here it is: Buds on the tree in my front yard.
For those of you who have been reading this blog since I started back at the end of last summer, you may remember a post called “Lesson from the Trees.” I talked about how this particular tree loses it’s leaves first but it also gets its leaves first. Read it here https://hopeanyway.com/lesson-from-the-trees/.
That tree is budding now. That’s it pictured. It absolutely floods my soul with hope. Today in the middle of the gray and drizzle I was reminded that winter never lasts forever. I know it feels like it. Four straight days of February rain sure makes it feel like it.
I’m still working on trying to get my Dad’s estate all settled and closed. It was February of last year when the doctor’s told him there was nothing else they could do. I’ve been actively dealing with my father’s death for a year – preparing for it, watching it happen and then wrapping up his life. It’s felt like winter for a long time.
There’s nothing really unique to my individual story. We all have to go through seasons of suffering that feel like the deepest, unending winter imaginable. I’m here to tell you that sometimes we simply have to hang on and endure. I’m also here to tell you that winter always ends.
Most of us are familiar with “the love chapter” in the Bible. It’s 1 Corinthians 13 if you need the refresher. I have long been hung up on verse 7 that points out that love “endures all things.” Endure means to suffer patiently. Think about that for a minute. Part of love is suffering patiently. I know there are people out there who love winter and snow. Good for you. I’m not one of them. I suffer through winter patiently. I endure it.
I think about enduring the last year of my life. Well, without question I loved my Dad so I’ve endured what I’ve had to. I bet you’ve endured plenty of suffering because you loved someone. The Bible also tells us that we should rejoice in our sufferings because ultimately they produce hope (Romans 5:3-5). They help make us who God wants us to be. Y’all that’s plain hard.
Does that mean I have to rejoice in wintertime? Cold weather, gray skies and some days that simply make it difficult for me to take care of myself? You are allowed to disagree, but I think it does. I have to work really hard to rejoice in the day the Lord has made when I’m walking in the rain and haven’t seen sunshine in days.
On days when it’s super rainy, I often tell people that it’s a good day for ducks. I say that because I heard my Dad say it many times. It reminds me that we need both rain and sun. We need the winter whether I like it or not. It reminds me that many people might benefit from circumstances I don’t appreciate or understand. We need a little bit of suffering because there’s tremendous value in it.
But Friends, I saw buds on trees this morning! When we can endure it all the way through we’ll see that suffering ends in hope. Winter ends. The sun shines again. We might not be the same people we were before the suffering. But it’s so worth it to hang on.
If I could follow each of you around all day and clap and shout encouragement for you, I would. Instead, I can tell you to notice God’s creation. Nevermind the rain and the gray of winter, look for the buds of spring. Look for the hope. Look for God. He’s always there.
