Wow, how quickly the year flies by – one minute you are thinking of New Year’s resolutions and the next, Easter is almost upon you. It won’t be long before you’re having to plan for Christmas! Okay, maybe not quite yet but you get where I’m going!
I love this time of year when the weather holds that promise of what’s to come, the evenings are getting lighter, and snow drops, crocuses and daffodils are making their bright appearances. From the bleakness of winter comes this whisper, this promise, of something fresh – a new beginning. You can see buds on the trees, beautiful blossoms and it gives me a bounce in my step and gives me a feeling of hope.
In our life we go through seasons – sometimes we are in a bright beautiful summer period where all is going well, and sometimes we are walking through a dark winter where it can feel like there is no hope. I wrote a song back in 2013 after I suffered a miscarriage. It is called ‘The spring must come again’.
For me something that was so obvious was no matter the pain that I was going through, although I felt trapped in eternal winter the seasons they still marched on. But that is so vital to remember that what we go through are just seasons, and after the cold and bleakness of winter there is a Hope that breaks through. I truly saw that happen in my life, how the winter gave way to a ray of hope, the promise of new life. At the time it felt like everything had stopped and that hope was gone, but like a little bud breaking through the ground it surfaced again.
I know that life will be a journey through the seasons, there will be times of joy, and times of sadness, times of peace and times of war. But for me I am so grateful that I don’t have to walk alone through any of those seasons. It was the times where I found it hard to face the day and was overcome with grief that I felt carried. Even when I was clinging on with my finger tips I knew that God was there and that he was with me. I found my hope in him.
I want to sign off with the beautiful poem ‘Footprints in the sand’:
One night I had a dream. I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to me, and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that many times along the path of my life there was only one set of footprints. I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in my life.
This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it:
“Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why when I need you most you would leave me.”
The Lord replied: “My precious child, I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”
I pray that whatever season or stage of life you find yourself in today that you would know that God is with you right there, that He loves you, He knows you by name, and will be your hope, if you let Him.
God bless,
Kat