Does this look like spring to you?

Emerald leaves swishing to and fro, dancing on soft breezes against a clear blue backdrop. Buzzing bees on bright yellow blooms, soaking in sunlit warmth.

Wait a minute, the caption doesn’t exactly fit, does it?

Try this one:

Snowy-white, bare-treed, chill–to-the-bone freezing, with a side order of wind-chill.

Actually, I think this image is quite beautiful, but I wouldn’t call it spring. Would you?

Here’s the image more fitting of the first caption.

It feels warmer, doesn’t it? The colors vibrant and full of life.

But this image of spring isn’t any more spring than the other. You see the other, as wintery as it appears, was taken on the second day of spring.

The weather may attempt to fool us, wrapping our spring in a wintery coat. Yet we know what is true. The calendar says it’s spring. Seasons change regardless of weather conditions.

The seasons of life may not look or feel the way we think they should either. Our rainy season may feel dry, our spring may feel wintery.

Our feelings, like the weather, can attempt to fool us into thinking we’re in the wrong season. Let’s not allow our feelings to override truth.

Deep down, underneath what may feel barren and gray, is new growth, green, and waiting to flourish. Seeds of promise waiting to bloom.

When we allow the weather condition of our circumstances to dictate our season, we risk keeping frozen what God wants to bloom in us.

Spiritual seasons are filled with lessons, and treasures, and growth.

Ponder these things in your heart:

• Life is not about living for the next season, it’s about blooming in the season we are in. He will lead us into the next season in its time.
• Our purpose is not only for our tomorrow, it’s a powerful part of our today.
• Unlike the calendar, God determines the length of our spiritual seasons.
• Every season, whether long or short, fruitful or fruitless, in the valley or on the mountain top, are all for His purposes. God is teaching, pruning, and equipping. No experience is ever wasted. He works it all together for good.
• Spiritual growth can take place even when our emotions dictate otherwise.
•  Whether at the end of a season or just beginning, He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is faithful and His promises are true in every season. Trust in Him, because He cares for you.

“To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NKJV)

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…” Ecclesiastes 3:11a (NIV)

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18 (ESV)

What is God teaching you in your current season?

(Snowy image courgesy of Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.