Frost in the Morning

It has been frosting lately. This being our first year in Colorado has left us not knowing what the seasons would be like. For the last week we have been scraping frost off the windshield of the car. We find ourselves waking up to darkness and frost and cold and quickly questioning the choice to move here. I'm not sure what we expected. Frost happens almost everywhere. But it still takes me by surprise - I guess I thought it would always be sunny and 70 degrees. The thing that is different about the weather here is a profound concept that I am trying to get used to. It won't sound like much when I write it, but here it goes - the weather changes.

In Colorado, the temperature can fluctuate as much as 60 degrees in a given day. This morning is was in the high 20's. This afternoon it could be in the 80's. The day before yesterday it was rainy and snowing in the mountains, with sleet and hail. Yesterday is was beautiful and sunny and warm and the snow was melting off. You never know what to expect. But living in an area that has 300+ days of sunshine leaves a pretty good chance that you'll see the warm glow of yellow stuff sooner or later.

I have a point to all this, and it isn't to just talk about the weather. I find that life can be a little like the weather in Colorado. When we encounter a cold, frosty, dark morning, it sure feels like it will never be 70 and sunny. I remind myself every morning that it will be warm later, but the same thinking happens every time. I find that most of us think like that as we follow God. When things are cold and frosty and dark, we lose sight of the sunshine to come. We buy into the lie that life will always be like this. Yet the reality couldn't be farther from that. The reality, the truth, is that God is all about growing and changing. That is the very reason He came to earth - to help us grow into His likeness. He doesn't even think about us staying the same. He is about life!

So I guess we need to remind ourselves that the cold and dark in life won't last. And when the sunshine comes, we can rejoice in a deep appreciation of it because it is set in the backdrop of dark and cold. It is the contradiction that makes it beautiful. It is the dark and cold that accentuates the sunshine and warmth.

How often have we wanted to trade in the murky days for the sunny ones? Yet something profoundly important would be lost - appreciation and perspective. Out of the darkness, God created light. What a contrast. Out of mud He created man. What a contrast. And out of the mess that we make of our own lives, Papa makes more beauty than we could ever have imagined.