Always Winter, never Christmas

4/17/2018

Always Winter, never Christmas

- JEOPARDY-
Contestant1: "I'll take COLD for $500"
Alex Trebec: “It is winter, and has been for ever so long…. always winter, but never Christmas.”
- beep, beep!
Contestant1: "What is Narnia?"
Alex Trebec: "I'm sorry, that is not the answer we were looking for."
beep, beep!
Contestant2: "What is April 2018 in Minnesota."
Alex Trebec: "That is CORRECT!"

My wife and I recently bought a townhome on March 29, 2018. That first evening the deck was clear of snow, and the ground was finally looking like after a long cold bitter Winter.. Spring may be around the corner.

Well that joke was on us as two days later (March 31) while we were busy with painting, removing wallpaper and tearing out old carpet. We were hit with first a freezing rain, then a heavy wet snow.

As a winter encore the following weekend April 6th when we started loading our moving truck it was 8 degrees! Not 58, 48, 38, or even 28.. just 8. EIGHT!

Thankfully friends and family with warm hearts and strong backs made the move a success

Over the next week as we were unloading boxes and arranging rooms, the snow was melting and again Spring seemed right around the corner.

Well actually around that corner we found Mother Nature spewing out more winter rage starting on April/Friday the 13th where we transitioned from freezing rain to a full blown blizzard resulting in 18 inches of snow and the winds were I believe 25-30mph. Yeah Spring?

So again, what is always winter, but never Christmas. April in Minnesota!

Ok I do realize Spring will come eventually. In fact my wife Mary told me last night the forcast is for the temperature to be in the 60s all next week. That would be nice, and I trust my wife, but.. Mother Nature? Not so much.

I know sometimes in everyones lives it feels like 'always winter but never Christmas'. Not the go sledding, or skiing kind, but a cold, dark existence where literal and figurative storms rage threatening to destroy everything.

The loss of a job, marriage tensions, divorce, sickness, death, depression, anxiety, and a host of other factors in our lives that are more threatening than an April blizzard. The answer to all these storms and more is the Jesus who calms the seas.

My wife and I have both learned that the pursuit of God through quiet times reading our bibles, a good Christian book, and/or time spent in prayer is where Jesus calms these storm in our lives.

We call it doing our magic.. I know, I know magic may be a bad Christian analogy, but being close to God, and focusing my eyes on Him instead of any raging storm gives us peace all while the waves may remain high and the winds whistling. It is not magic, but instead the Spirit of God opening our eyes and giving us hope.

One last thing about always winter, but never Christmas. This world appears to be always winter and never Christmas.. even in the deserts of the Middle East.

Chaos reigns in this world of natural disasters, and even more so in the hearts of men who do not know God. For this too, I pray to Jesus for revival in the heart of men in women in America and throughout the world.

Only with Jesus will this world experience hope in the storms that threaten to consume us.

May God bless each of your lives today. You may live in sunny Florida where it feels like always winter and never Christmas in your heart and/or circumstance, but our God can give you the peace that passes all understanding and/or storm.

Know that God is so good and with you even in the storms and trials of this broken world.

Blessings

Jeff (Ready4Spring) Larson

6 Comments

dawn tolliver

4/17/2018 08:26:57 am

Once again we are on the same wave length...
i have a mini poster on my fridge that says " Sometimes God calms the storm and sometimes God lets the storm rage and calms His child." I think perhaps while I live on and Island at the bottom of Texas (Even here it has been chili, though certainly not 8 degrees) God is Calming his child as I too have spent the last month downsizing, moving from a 3 bedroom two bath to a 1 bedroom 1 bath with three cats, unpacking and what not... I think of the verse in Luke 2... And it came to Pass.... so this too shall pass.... Thanks Jeff

Jeff

4/17/2018 10:28:39 am

Thanks Dawn, life is good but ever changing.

Art Pederson

4/17/2018 10:38:47 am

5+ cm snow in the forecast for overnight tonight followed by rain, zr, ice pellets, but warming up to mid teens c° on the weekend. . .

Elaine

4/17/2018 01:50:46 pm

We have hit 80 here in South Carolina. Although we just came through tornadoes; and we spend all summer tracking the hurricanes as they go up our coast.

But nothing beats that first day I see clouds of little new leaves on my trees. THANK YOU JESUS again.

Rich Dymmel link

4/17/2018 11:27:04 pm

I consider Jeff Larson sort of a “friend” of mine. He gave me permission to use and reprint his cartoons and material (before I also started paying him a monthly “royalty” to support his ministry.) When I read this newest entry in his blog, I thought of those that aren’t in a “Minnesota Spring storm” as he starts his blog entry, but in other “storms of life,” that he is really talking about.
After about a year and a half of treatments for my cancer, today I was given the result of the first PSA test for my prostate cancer. My PSA was 0.1 !! That’s almost nonexistent. In “test numbers” it’s “prefect.” – We are hopefully seeing the “beginning of the end” of my “Winter.” - - P.T.L.!!! - - … at least this “storm.”
Rich

Karen Lewis

4/18/2018 11:19:35 pm

Winter is a state of mind...unless you live in Minnesota. In Maryland it hasn't been able to make up its mind. It was 68 one day and dumped 6 inches of sleet/ice pellets and wet snow, and a couple days later zoomed to 80, then back to 42...so make your state of mind be Spring, or Summer, or make the best of it being Win-ring, that inbetween state where it just IS.

Always Winter, never Christmas

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