Regular Rhythms
Over the past few days, where I live, we have seen a dramatic drop in the temperature. Thursday, it was 80, but while I sit writing, it is in the 40s and drizzly. The changing weather is a reminder that seasons don’t stay the same forever.
Over the last week, I’ve been watching the leaves change colors. Evidence that fall is in full swing and winter is on its way.
Last Monday, I dropped my son off at school and took a picture of a tree in the parking lot. The red hues were just beginning to peek through. By the time I returned that afternoon to pick him up, the tree had exploded with color, and you would never have guessed it was primarily green that morning.
Every year, I find myself in awe of the changing leaves. There is evidence of this wonder on my phone. You can scroll through every October of photos and see glimpses of reds, yellows, and oranges lighting up the sides of the road.
This documenting of changing colors has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a little girl, my family would hop in the car and go for a drive through the countryside in Vermont, where we lived. The landscape was dappled with old barns and bridges surrounded by the most vibrant trees you have ever seen. It was like the earth was ablaze as the trees prepared for winter.
As a little girl, I loved the brilliant colors. I didn’t really understand what they meant; I just enjoyed the beauty.
As I have gained a deeper understanding of what is happening to the trees, I have also come to marvel at their built-in coding to drop their leaves and conserve energy for the winter months.
The fact that God designed the trees to prepare for the winter is such a hopeful picture to me.
We all have winter seasons in our stories. It is part of being human. But even in those winter seasons, God remains with us.
In the winter, the trees remain alive because they send their resources to their root system to sustain them until spring comes again. They stop feeding the leaves and feed the roots of the tree; this is what keeps the tree alive. The trees take their cues from the world around them - they notice the shorter days, colder temperatures, etc., and begin to prepare for a period of dormancy.
And while we are not trees and can’t always prepare for winter seasons, we do have a root system that sustains us.
Our root system grows deeper each year. As we spend time in Scripture, in community, in prayer, following Jesus, listening to the Spirit, etc., our root system expands. It grows deeper and sturdier with time so that when we are faced with winter, we can rely on the reserves of our root system.
The regular, sometimes even mundane, rhythms of our spiritual formation are the building blocks that help us see God in every season of our story.
~ Melissa