"... spring shall come again."

Today is absolutely gorgeous!  The sun is shining.  Blue sky.  It's actually kinda warm.  All signs that spring is coming again.

As I was praying this morning, I was thanking God for His creation and how He uses it to illustrate the way He works in us.  Winter can seem long and bleak... especially when it comes with more than 4 feet of snow that never seems to melt.  But eventually the weather gets warmer, the snow melts, and flowers start to bloom.  Today has been a reminder for me that the winter in my heart is starting to give way to spring.  Things that seemed dead or were hidden by snow are coming to life and into view again.  Rivers that were frozen have thawed and started to flow again, bringing life to the seeds God has been planting.  It's all evidence of the work God has been doing over the last few months... some of it is even work that I didn't realize was happening.

Satan, of course, is not a fan of this.  He keeps trying to freeze the things that have melted or kill the baby plants with frost.  But God has been faithfully shielding me from Satan's attempts to ruin His work.  Whether by fighting for me or giving me the strength to fight or bringing others alongside to fight with me, God is keeping Satan at bay.

It's kind of cool because Sarah gave me a necklace for Christmas that appropriately foreshadowed this moment.  The pendant on the necklace is a replica of Peter's shield from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe".  On the back is a quote from the book & movie: "Wrong will be right when Aslan comes in sight.  At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more.  When he bares his teeth, winter meets its end, and when he shakes his mane, spring shall come again."  Given in the hopes that I would be protected and shielded by that knowledge, this gift has been a reminder of the hope of spring that we can have in the midst of the hardest winters.  That hope is now becoming a reality, and it fills me with hope for the beauty of God's work in my heart as it continues to grow and bloom.

What season are you in right now?  If it's winter, hold on to the hope that spring will come again... and when it does, it will be beautiful.