Winter Renewal
Recently, one of our favorite Christian recording artists released a song entitled, “Endless Summer.” The song especially spoke to me(Cari) perhaps in part because the weather has always affected my moods for better or worse. The clever wordsmithing of these lyrics really triggered a picture that resonated with me.
“Have you ever missed somewhere That you’ve never been before
Like there’s a memory there Except you don’t remember anymore
I feel the weight in the silence And when the night starts getting cold
And it’s been like that for a long, long time
And I heard we got a longer way to go They say we’re in for an endless winter ‘Til we’re gone
But when I search that sunrise Feels like I belong To an endless summer Somewhere Are we meant for an endless summer On and on”
Winter is bearing down on me with all its bleak and blustery days. The Winter months in the Czech Republic average a measly 47 hours of sunlight. For comparison, California’s bleakest winter month sees some 217 hours of sun. Living here has always conjured a perplexing mix of emotions sustained by beauty and brokenness. There is always a prevailing and unquenchable desire for the sunlight. The barren trees, the blustery winds, the early and impending darkness, a bleak emptiness spreads over the landscapes and horizons. Winter induces contemplation by reduction. It is a time for minimizing and austerity. Little wonder that this triggering of inner reflection and introspection has existed for thousands of years. Historians trace our winter resolutions as far back as the Babylonians. The Romans felt January held a significance with looking back on the year and forward to the future. For Christians a few generations past, John Wesley established renewal services during the winter months in the early 1700s consisting of singing, prayer, and scripture reading.
We are not the first and will not be the last generation to come upon the winter season with heavy longing and deep needs for renewal. Similarly, the creator created the earth and its subjects with a cyclical need for seasons of plenty, and seasons of measured adaptation. I appreciate the word picture of our whole lives as a winter season. Our hearts are in partial fellowship, the incompleteness of our current estate not fully comprehended. “The thrill of hope. The weary world rejoices”.
