I don't like the winter, when the branches are bare.

     I like the spring, when many shades of green cover the earth, and bright colored flowers please the eye.  I like the summer when the days are long and the sun warms everything.  I like the fall when the leaves turn such beautiful shades and the breezes begin to be cool.  But I don't like the winter.

     In the winter the branches are bare and the sky is often grey.  The winds are cold and the short days seem very long.  It is such a cheerless time, and I dislike it very much.

     But if it were not for the winter, the other seasons would not mean nearly so much.  The green of spring, and the warmth of summer, and the color of fall are all appreciated against the backdrop of the winter.  They are richer because it is so bleak.

     And the winter reveals beauty which is not seen at other times.  Things such as the twists and turns of branches and limbs which form lovely sculptures against the sky.  Things such as the heavens filled with sparkling stars which are often missed because the leaves on the trees obscure the view at other seasons of the year.

     So it is with the spiritual winter of our experience.  The times of difficulty and discipline we all know on occasion.  Times when the days are long and grey and cheerless.  We are never glad to see them come.

     But there is help and meaning in the spiritual winter also.  The bleak seasons help us to appreciate the other times.  We remember the blessings of yesterday, and are grateful in ways we may not have been before.  We look ahead to a change in the seasons of life.  Hope springs up and spills over into the grey.

     And we often see things we could not or did not see in other times.  We may see the hand of God.  Perhaps we can trace the outline of a beautiful plan of which we were not aware.  We may see people who are hurting, but who were invisible to us when everything was "green."  We may begin to understand life and our place in God's world.  We may begin to grow in areas where we are very immature.  All because the branches are bare.

     The writer of Psalm 119 said it well:

"Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now I have kept thy word." (v.67)
"It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes." (v.71)
"I know, O Lord, that thy judgements are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me." (v.75)

     Trusting God's faithfulness, we can find peace and joy.  Even when the branches are bare.