Mowing in Winter

No winter lasts forever;

No spring skips its turn.

-Hal Borland

Sunday and Monday of this week, the temperature outside was literally freezing – well, far below, actually.  Sunday morning it was about 14 degrees. Today – it was 54 degrees.  It really didn’t feel that warm because of the breeze, but it was certainly a welcome departure from the deep chill of last weekend.  What did I do to celebrate?  I mowed two large back lawns.

  

Insane, you say?  No, not really.  One of my friends “hired” me to do her leaves this year.  I finished bagging the huge oak leaves in the front yard before Christmas, but did not get to the backyard before the temperatures dropped.  It has a beautifully even carpet of lovely round leaves [I haven’t a clue from what kind of tree].  I have a great mulching lawn mower, and we had agreed that I would mulch up the back leaves.  Even I, however, am not crazy enough to mow leaves in below freezing weather.  Yesterday was the perfect day to finish the job, and while I was at it, I dispensed with the leaves in my own backyard.

In the midst of a bleak winter landscape with snow upon snow or ice upon ice, it is difficult, sometimes, to remember that new life is buried beneath, quietly waiting to burst forth in the warmth of spring.  I often think of another of my favorite songs when I begin to feel that way:

When the night has been too lonely,

And the road has been too long.

And you think that love is only

For the lucky and the strong.

Just remember in the winter,

Far beneath the bitter snow

Lies the seed, that with the sun’s love

In the spring, becomes the rose.

In our daily walk, it can [and often does] feel as though we are in the wintertime of our lives, and there is nothing on the horizon of surprise or joy – only the continuation of cold and darkness.  Times of discouragement are no stranger to the human race.  When the reality of our lives is not what we planned, it is easy to forget that there is One who can take any circumstance and weave it into a glorious tapestry “for our good.” We see only the back side of the embroidery of our lives, with its knots and hanging threads.  We must trust the Master Weaver, who fashions all the threads – dark and light – into a beautiful life.

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;
In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
There’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

 –Romans 8:28