My experience of winter in Greensboro is very different from my experience of winters in the west. When I read the weather reports from Washington I feel slightly, though not completely, guilty as the weather here is completely unlike the weather there--and in what I think is a very good way. Here we have very cold days from time to time, but the coldest days are usually clear sky days. We have had some downpours, but are in the midst of a drought so there is little threat of rain most days. And we are also having record highs. This past week I was able to get out on my bike three times, and take long walks on trails past lakes several other days. At times it felt like spring had arrived. I like it!


Another aspect of winter here is the trees. Most places I have lived in the west have evergreen pine and fir trees, beautiful and always green. Here most of the trees lose their leaves in the winter, which creates a very different feel. The ground in the woods behind us is covered with fallen leaves and the trees are bare. The pond behind us has been frozen a couple days,
which confuses the geese who inhabit it, but at the same time it tranquilly reflects the browns surrounding it. The season has its harshness, but at the same time it has a special kind of beauty. It is not a beauty of vibrant life and brilliant color, but one of stark plainness. It is a beauty that calls for silence; a beauty that calls for calm. It is a beauty that lets you see what is behind the color and cover of other seasons, in a sense it is a season of honesty.


I am glad to live in a place that has seasons. It reminds me of Ecclesiastes 3, There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 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, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

At times we would like the clock to stand still, but it will not. At times we grieve over the times and seasons that have passed and long for them to return, but they will not. What this means is that we need to see the beauty of the season we are in, not expect one form of beauty to last forever. It also means we need to learn how to listen to God at every season, and how to live for God with the changes that each season brings. And we need to give thanks that, through faith in Christ, some day for us, and for the whole world, all things once again will be made new…