chapters
Midwestern winters are beautiful and serene. The crisp white snow lights the sky by day and covers streetlights like a lampshade by night. The bright reflection bounces off the ground keeping you warm. The glow illuminates the world with a softness inviting you to bundle up and rest in the stillness.
But they are also long and cold. By late winter, the crisp white snow turns into muddy slush, mixed with sand and salt. Moving through this muck feels more like trudging in cinderblock boots and less like seamlessly skating over a crystal lake. The sky turns grey and trees remain barrenly brown. Covered in dirt, the slush no longer reflects the light of day. The lampshade now cemented with grit darkens the night sky. Cold air stings the body. Driven indoors by this cold grime leaves an ache for brightness and warmth to return.
My soul longs for the crisp light and soft glow the first snow of the winter brought.
In this longing, I watch one tree with anticipation. Surprised by pink blooms on an otherwise grey day my first year here, this tree continues to remind me spring is coming soon. As the pink blooms weave themselves into the backdrop of empty branches, the grey winter sky turns bright blue. Sunlight drawn to the earth with a crispness now warmed by color, anchoring me to the crystal clear water above.
A picture so perfect in timing and beauty, God is the only One who could have created it.
Yoked to life with God, the maker of all things, the soft sunset invites me to linger in the presence of His love and rest.
Being anchored to His love and light this year has been beyond kind. Sewn into the last words on the last page of a good chapter are the blossoms of this tree. Linking the branches already lived in this year’s story to the blooms still yet to be lived. A reminder God’s chapters are both finite and arbitrary. The loving kindness woven in His last words will carry us into His next words.
The cool crisp snow of night providing rest turns to muddy slush while blooms open hearts wide to dream. The warm soft sunset delivers us to the One who already knows what tomorrow holds.
The lamp lighting His path below dims grey while colorful flowers draw eyes up into the horizon. The bright sunlight guides our steps forward for His mission.
The cold and dark drift aside making way for warmer days and brighter steps.
Like a book binding sewn together, the brown branches of the chapter ending are woven to the blooms of the next beginning in the middle of a seam. God’s hands holding them together lest we forget that it takes the same finger to turn a page to see the next chapter number as it took to see the next word four sentences ago.
With each page turn, we are anchored to Him. Wherever He goes, we will go confidently together.
