Winter happens to be my favorite season. It calls on us to use our imagination somewhat, doesn't it?
And I think our imagination is rooted in faith.
Can you hear the birds singing?
Can you feel the push of the spring bulb against a hard cold soil that is unforgiving in its harshness?
Sometimes that is the way our lives feel--as if we are in a cold, unforgiving atmosphere--as if we have to keep pushing against an immovable object--as if we are wrestling God Himself!
I read an article the other day by John Piper about Jacob wrestling the angel. The gist of the article was how sometimes our greatest blessings come during the wrestling but many times we lose sight of those blessings or never see them at all because of the circumstances around us--the preoccupation with the wrestling.
In my advent reading for today, Hannah wrestles with God--
In this link, Timothy Keller refers to Hannah the barren one as such:
"Hannah recognized that her grief had become sin and her mourning had become an 'affliction'(1 Samuel 1:11), so at Shiloh she sacrificed that which enslaved her to the Lord."
Today it is my prayer that wherever our lives or circumstances are barren that we will recognize God's hand and devote ourselves more and more to Him.
May we recognize the blessings that come even through our wrestling.
And even in the dead of winter in our souls may we exult in the Lord!
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