Thanksgiving is now a few days behind us and Christmas is approaching fast.  We are headed into the dead of winter.  Winter is often associated with a time of dormancy.  The bears are hibernating, the trees lose their leaves, the ground lays inactive waiting for the cold to pass.  The same concept applies in our lives.  There is a time in our lives that we know as winter.  Its those times when nothing seems to have any life.  The world around us is cold.  Things are not growing—everything seems dead.  It is easy to feel glum and gloomy in the middle of our winters.  We need to be reminded that at times, in the middle of our winters, there is still life to be found.  There is a story that bears repeating as a reminder to us to be patient during our winters.

“I remember one winter my dad needed firewood, and he found a dead tree and sawed it down. In the spring, to his dismay, new shoots sprouted around the trunk. He said, “I thought sure it was dead. The leaves had all dropped in the wintertime. It was so cold that twigs snapped as if there were no life left in the old tree. But now I see that there was still life at the taproot.” He looked at me and said, “Bob, don’t forget this important lesson. Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst mood. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.” 

It is often in the dead of winter that we look around us and see the bareness of our lives.  It is easy to start assuming the worst.  We begin to make decisions based on the negative reports that we are seeing.  What we do not see is that below the surface, below all the negative signs of death, that life is blooming and growing.  During the winter we should never make negative decisions.  During the hard seasons of our life we should never make decisions based off of circumstances.  Just wait.  The storm will pass.  Then when life begins to blossom again you can start to make those important decisions.  Let winter pass and spring will come.