Nostalgia

Here we are at the end of February, and strangely enough, we have just received only the third snow of our winter, when it can be completely normal here to have a big snow storm each week beginning in November. 

Some people begin to complain about the snow long before December, although they do desire a white Christmas.  After that, I mostly hear how everyone is longing for spring.  "Spring, spring, spring"----when we are in the dead of winter.

I do understand as I also long for spring, but it is the spring in my innermost person where I long for it.  I long for renewal, the complete release of daily grief, and the beginning of joy without agony alongside of it.  I have come to somewhat accept that it may just be that I will only experience this kind of spring in glory with the Savior.  I will be fine as He carries me every day and showers His mercies on me daily so I can get up and "do next things" for Him.  I praise Him and glory in His name as I "see" His hand on me all these years.

Last night as bundled up and as toasty as can be, we walked for 30 minutes in a driving snow storm in our neighborhood where half way home I didn't think I could get there because in the only open area which was my eyes and I was being stung by the very pokey snow crystals.  YOUCH!  I know winter is harsh and bleak, but this is not what I normally think of when I think of winter.

For now on this earth, I enjoy winter.   I think it may be because it is full of nostalgia for me.  I remember the many, many winters of our marriage and with children.  Mostly it is the being inside safe and warm part after we have been outside in the weather.  The hours spent together toasty and comfortable.  The knowledge of coming home and battening down the hatches and being snowed in for the duration. 

Today as I shoveled I had a memory come to me and it was of my childhood.  So now I know that my nostalgia goes farther back to when my mother made snow days special for her children.  She began these memories in me that grew into our own memories in our marriage and so when everyone else seems to chant, "Spring, spring, spring" beginning in November, I now know why I want to hold onto my special winters

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

What does the worker gain from his toil?
I have seen the burden God has laid on men.
He has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;
yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

I know that there is nothing better for men
than to be happy and do good while they live.
That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil
—this is the gift of God.

I know that everything God does will endure forever;
nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.
God does it so that men will revere him.

Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account