After Winter Always Comes Spring

Some winters seem to never end.  I remember one year in particular.  It was the year of the ice storms.  In addition to the ice we also had a blizzard in March with a lingering cold and dreary spring.  In Pennsylvania it is usually safe to start planting flowers after Mother’s Day, not this year.  It was still too cold.  When would it end?  When would we feel the warmth of the sun on our faces again?

You may be facing something right now that feels like winter will never end, as though an inescapable cloud has settled on your life making it difficult to see through to the sunshine.  The pain can seem too great to bear, the heartache too intense to breathe, the consequences too severe to face, or the diagnosis too grim to cope. Maybe this cloud is hovering over your home, affecting a meaningful relationship, or causing unexplainable fear?  Whatever it is, I know it can feel as though the sun has gone away, never to return.  In seasons like these it can be easy to lose hope.

To hope is to wait with confidence and expectation, trusting deliverance will come. 

But how can we find hope in a seemingly never ending winter?

Four years had gone by since the struggle began.  It was one thing after another… Consecutive staff infections, pain, fatigue, losing my voice, needing vocal cord surgery, the diagnosis… Lupus,  pneumonia, new medications, then my kidneys, hospitalization, steroids, chemo, my appearance, the life I knew was gone.  The plans I made, the dreams I dreamed, disappeared into the gloomy gray sky during this season of winter in my life.

While in the hospital, Rob, my boyfriend at the time, now my husband, came to visit.  Before he left he handed me the words to a song he wrote for me titled, The Painter.  He kissed me goodbye, headed out the door and disappeared into the hustle of the hallway.  Confined to my bed I began to read the lyrics, tears streamed down my face.  The inner struggles I felt, the many losses I faced, the ongoing questions I was asking, were lovingly confronted with hope and truth in this beautiful song he had written.  I knew at that moment I would someday see the clouds fade away and stand in awe at the result of the marvelous work the Lord was doing in my life.

The following fall I headed back to college (Cairn University) with my round face and nearly bald head.  Then a few weeks into the semester I went in for my last chemo treatment.  Finally, I could go down on the steroids and my hair was growing back.  I was elated to get a short haircut in November. The clouds were slowly beginning to dissipate, the sun was peeking through!  Soon it would be Christmas time but this Christmas, spring had come!  On Christmas Day, I sat next to Rob as he played a song on a grand piano.  This time it was a different song he had written for me.  In this song he asked me to marry him.

Be confident of this… After winter, ALWAYS comes Spring!

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. ³ And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;⁴ and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; ⁵ and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:1-5 NASB

Rob and I recorded this song in the spring of 1991.

THE PAINTER

By Rob Curry

January 1990

If I could paint the picture, I’d make the scene so beautiful and bright.

I would make the sunshine, coming down in a never ending light.

Oh but I can’t see the picture from Your vantage point.

So paint for me the color’s of Your choice.

Chorus

He takes my favorite colors and mixes them with gray

And I wonder why my picture looks this way.

But when He adds the final strokes and at last He lets me see,

I’m glad the Painter painted as He pleased.

If I could work the canvas I’d never let a shade of doubt appear?

I would paint out sorrow

Erase the trace of suffering or fear.

Chorus

He takes my favorite colors and mixes them with gray

And I wonder why my picture looks this way.

But when He adds the final strokes and at last He lets me see,

I’m glad the Painter painted as He pleased.

So many times I’ve tried to snatch that brush out of His hand.

So many times I said, “Oh, Lord, You just don’t understand.”

But time and time again He’s shown that all is understood

And he works it all together for my good.

Chorus

He takes my favorite colors and mixes them with gray

And I wonder why my picture looks this way.

But when He adds the final strokes and at last He lets me see,

I’m glad the Painter painted as He pleased.

Paint on Painter into my life.

Paint Your colors into my life.

Paint on Painter.

 

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”  Romans 8:28 NASB