Winter has Purpose. Spring is Coming.

When you can feel something shifting
but can’t yet see the full bloom.

As I looked out my kitchen window, I finally noticed small green shoots bursting through the soil. Oh, what excitement after a long winter! Watching the garden slowly come back to life as the weather warms and the sun shines bright, it brings such hope and joy to my heart. It feels like the Lord is whispering to me.

After months of stillness in the quiet of winter, something is stirring.

And it made me think about the winter seasons in our own lives. The ones where we are waiting for God to clarify the next step. The ones where we carry prayers quietly and where we wonder if anything is moving at all.

There are areas of my life that still feel like winter.
Prayers I’ve repeated for years.
Plans I thought would have unfolded by now.
Silence where I expected movement.

And yet… lately, I sense the faintest stirring.

A conversation here.
An unexpected opportunity there.
Words flowing onto pages I wasn’t sure I was ready to write.

The tiny green shoots.

I never know exactly when they will break through the soil, just like I never know when the prayers I hold will start to unfold. But the garden reminds me that growth is often happening long before it becomes visible. It is often happening in the harshness of winter.

And it’s in these seasons where even winter has its purpose.

So what do we do in winter seasons?
We tend what’s in front of us.
We work quietly.
We trust that what feels buried and hidden is actually growing.

It can sting a little, if I’m honest, to hear that winter is preparation especially when you’re longing for blooms. For something to finally arrive.

But I’m learning to trust more deeply and hold onto the promise that these winter seasons are not wasted.

Hidden does not mean forgotten.

Spring is coming.

“For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.”
Song of Solomon 2:11–12