I wonder what season you are currently in? Much like nature, life has its seasons, so where would you identify yourself to be right now?

Maybe you are in a season of growth and new life, like spring. Things are blooming and growing, life is full of promise and hope.

Or maybe it feels like winter for you at the moment, where things are hard and there is little evidence of life?

Each season has its own dynamic and challenge, opportunity and sometimes pain. Take a moment to reflect on where you currently sit.

The bible speaks about these seasons in a book called Ecclesiastes. In chapter 3 we read:

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.

A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build...

A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing…”

You don’t need me to tell you that life is hard, difficult, fragile. None of us are immune to this reality, regardless of your age, stage, belief, faith or philosophy, the above is true for us all.

What I have come to cherish as a follower of Jesus, is the portion of hope I can carry in those inevitable winter seasons. Having a faith in Jesus doesn’t give me immunity to suffering, but it gives me hope and reassurance that ultimately, the suffering is temporary.

A passage I have been meditating on recently is Proverbs 24:16 ‘for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again…’

This gives me hope. I might feel that I am in a winter season, a time of falling, but I am reassured that I will rise again.

I hope that this message might be an encouragement to you. My prayer for you, especially if you are in winter right now, is that you will rise again, that you will go again. Trust in Jesus, He is the way, the truth and the life.