Brrr, even the thought of winter sends shivers down the spine. The idea of warmth being driven deep into an abyss, buried beneath mounds of snow, chilled air, and brisk windchill factors, gives images of grey barrenness and mortality. Even those who live in cold climates speak of the joy of the sun shining on a cold winter day. Why? Because it is innate to long for the warmth and hope inherent in the sunshine. As we close our eyes and lift our faces towards the sun, momentarily, the chilliness surrounding us abates. We sense renewed promises, restored confidence, and refreshment in our hearts against winter as the sun warms our skin. We remember that this is only a season, a temporary state of existence. The reality of life hides elsewhere. While we are enduring barrenness, things are happening subconsciously to produce within us a deeper faith, a stronger resolve, and a new harvest of growth.
Indeed, the barrenness of winter destroys the pestilence of summer while the deep snows water the spring seeds of the next crop. Without winter, devoid of a season of death and decay, we would seldom realize our soul’s new growth. Even the warmest climates have seasons of forced shedding and barrenness necessary for the fresh leaves to burst forth. Cheryl Marlene of Akashic Mystic feels that the winter is essential for future blossoming. She writes, “the winter of the soul is not about transformation. The winter of the soul is a process of transmutation—an important distinction. Transformation is a shift in the structure. In contrast, transmutation is a shift in the essence. When you experience transmutation, you’re shifting the very essence of who you are. The winter of the soul prepares you for that very, very, very powerful deep motion that most people will resist because it’s not usually pleasant. The transmutation of the winter of the soul requires that you let go of control, of expectation, of outdated truth.” 2
HouseFires, an American worship band from Atlanta, Georgia, sings of a wilderness, a barrenness rife with confusion and despair that drives the singer to declare that God is still beautiful. Even amid brokenness, his eyes search the skies, and through pain, he still confesses that God is always good.
Is He?
Have you ever asked yourself if you genuinely believe that, or is it just the right thing to say? Have you felt like your river has actually run dry, that your well is indeed empty, and that you are sipping mud to quench your thirst? Have you endured, or are you surviving a winter of your soul? Are you clinging to hope, frozen on dried branches and draped in icicles? Did you scatter your seeds on hard, fallow ground and watch as they were eaten or trampled by life’s vultures and heavy footprints? Are you in the process of mutation or transformation?
Butterflies do both.
They are birthed in a state of vulnerability, while their existence depends on crawling for sustenance and shelter. Then, understanding the season, they risk everything to cocoon and bury themselves for the harshness of winter. They cocoon in crawling transformation and emerge in a beautiful transmutation – free to go wherever the sunshine leads them!
I invite you to ponder and journal about your present state in the middle of this winter season. Who are you? Where are you going? Are you just enduring, and if so, for what? Where are your seeds buried in the ground, scattered on top of the snow, or perhaps clutched in your trembling hands? I often wonder what is happening inside that cocoon. But only two things are aware of that – the caterpillar and God. I remember a childhood song that says, “only God can count the apples in a single seed; only He knows just how many there will be.” Like the seeds within you, like the wintering of your cocoon, God is preparing something far greater than we can ask or imagine.
But like the apple seed and the caterpillar, we must be present with Him in our current state, prepared to be buried and wintered so that something solid and beautiful will emerge.
” Very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24 3
Let’s do the work!
References:
1. https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/15-36.htm