February is the month that tries our souls. How I ever survived a childhood in New England I have no idea. February there isn't anywhere close to spring.
Though it isn't so cold here and we don't have snow up to the roof, the world just seems colorless and dreary.
Interesting, isn't it, how we're always longing for something? If we can just make it til spring...
We hope to build a new house this summer, with an improved design for our family.
I can't wait til the house is built.
I can't wait to be done with diapers.
I can't wait til the little ones stop making such a mess.
I can't wait to have more freedom.
Yet if these hopes are so great, why is there always another one right behind? Come spring, we can't wait to be done with school. We can't wait to go to the beach. Then we can't wait for cooler weather...
"What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy?" -Laura Story, "Blessings"
Maybe the Lord gives us this time of year to get in touch with our heart's longings. To see in our ache for springtime a deeper ache for an everlasting spring.
"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world." -C. S. Lewis
"'Have you not guessed?'
Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them.
'There was a real railway accident,' said Aslan softly... 'The term is over: the holidays have begun.'
...the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them... now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." -The Last Battle
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ReplyDeleteYour C. S. Lewis quote made me remember something our pastor said in a sermon several years ago. On Christmas morning the children open a gift just to hurry on to the next gift and finally at the end say, " is that all?" He said we shouldn't be too hard on the kids as they are looking, like all of us, for that perfection that can only be found in our true home--heaven.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the freedom is nice. But I also remember the days when 3 little children couldn't wait to see their mom and dad when we'd been gone even a short time. Try to enjoy it while you can. They do grow up. :-)
(Sorry, was signed in under Jon's name. He must have been using my computer)