Merry Midwinter

It’s February 3^rd — the dead center of winter.

“When the days are the shortest,

The nights are the coldest,

The frost is the sharpest,

The year is the oldest,

The sun is the weakest,

The wind is the hardest,

The snow is the deepest,

The skies are the darkest,

Then polish your whiskers and tidy your nest,

And dress in your richest and finest and best…

For winter has brought you the worst it can bring,

And now it will give you the promise of Spring!”

“Merry Midwinter” from Brambly Hedge, Secret Staircase by Jill Barklem

To celebrate the crux of winter, the mice in Brambly Hedge drink blackberry juice and eat biscuits, recite poetry, and gather to feast and celebrate in their snug tree trunk. They have met the sharpest edge of the season, their supplies are dwindling, and they anticipate the melt toward Spring.

This little poem about mice reminds me of us. Doesn’t the night always seem the darkest just before things brighten with hope? When it’s the deepest, darkest, coldest and sharpest, we can’t help but cling to — perhaps winter has now brought us the worst it can bring?

And now it will give us the promise of Spring?

I again am reminded of three sure things as I study different Scripture passages about bitter-winter-suffering — it is promised to us, it is temporary, and it is deeply meaningful.

-Suffering is Promised

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

It’s much easier to make sense of all the trouble and inconvenience we weather if we remember Jesus told us over and over this will be part of this world. Tight finances, aching pain, loss and longing don’t mean God doesn’t love us. Neither the trouble nor the tribulation is ever a surprise to Him, and He prepared us along with a promise that He would be with us through the weakest and sharpest.

-Suffering is Temporary

“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” I Peter 1:6-7

One of the biggest comforts to me during bleak seasons is that Scripture promises trials are momentary and light compared to what is to come! They will have an end. They’re just “for a little while.”

-Suffering is Meaningful

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18

I would never choose to walk where the “wind is the hardest,” but if I always picked easy street over God’s gift of suffering, I would miss the fruit and the blessing of His work. The proof of my faith and the praise of His glory. I would miss the eternal weight of glory attached to the suffering.

I never know where the exact middle of the storm is, but I know with certainty the best is yet to come for those in Christ. With these three truths held firmly in faith, what now? Why not winter with Brambly-mouse courage and joy?

“Then polish your whiskers and tidy your nest,

And dress in your richest and finest and best…

For winter has brought you the worst it can bring,

And now it will give you the promise of Spring!”

From the Secret Staircase by Jill Barklem

To translate from a mouse’s perspective, to that of a pilgrim of winter:

“Put on your courage and smile that’s best,

And endure the trial with joy and with rest,

Look up toward God’s creation of sky anew,

But if the bleak winter clouds block the full view,

Sing at midnight even if chained like Silas and Paul,

So loud the other prisoners can hear right through the wall!