Winter of the soul, a time when life seems dark and trials appear to outnumber the blessings, a time of inner darkness when God feels far away. However, it can also be a time of the greatest spiritual growth leading to the blessing of renewal. Have you been there? I would love to hear your comments.

2MefromHim Devotionals

My Winter of the Soul

Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. Hosea 6:3

Winter, a necessary season of life, yet by late February, we have had no real winter. Where we normally received three or more feet of snow, even in dry years, only four inches had fallen at our mountain home. Yet I was in the middle of a winter of the heart.

A friend wrote of rose hips growing in winter, but outside my home, nothing offered a hint of hope (In The Middle Of A Thicket, Rose Hips Grew). Drought promised a year of fires and dust storms, even in winter. Trees denied winter nourishment promised fewer leaves than last summer.

Stripped of summer’s green and autumn’s glory, my heart lay bare and naked against cold, gray skies. Illness and trials within my family, an upcoming surgery, and endless days of lonely work left my heart as bare as the dead tree outside my office window. My favorite tree stood brown and dying from drought on the other side of the house, and inside I felt the same.

My friend’s words burrowed deep into my spirit. “Winter of the soul,” the familiar phrase spoke to my heart. Madame Guyon, a French woman imprisoned for her writing on prayer, wrote a sermon entitled “The Winter of the Soul” (The Winter of the Soul): “I see the season of winter as an excellent example of the transforming work of the Lord in a Christians life…The defects had been invisible because of the beautiful leaves. Now those defects are startlingly revealed…you are not actually becoming worse, you are simply seeing yourself for what you really are! Know that somewhere deep within the tree of winter there is still the life that produced last spring’s beautiful leaves.”

She goes on to explain that trees need winter, when life focuses inward, to gather strength. When virtue is sinking deep in the Christian, it disappears, making natural defects conspicuous. However, rather than being ugly, this is a beautiful thing because once exposed defects can be healed.

Her closing passage spoke hope to my weary, wounded soul: “If you dare the spiritual pilgrimage, you need to remember in times of calamity, and in what appear to be dry spells, and in that time which men will call a spiritual winter: life is there.”

Somewhere in my own brokenness and that of my family, “life is there.” In the winter of my soul, hope remains that spring will heal winter’s scars with the fresh green of new life. And in the midst of writing this, a robin appeared against a cold, gray sky and it began to snow!

(Thanks to the writings of Nan Trammell Jones and Madame Jeanne Guyon.)

© Copyright by Norma Gail Thurston Holtman, February 22, 2018

About the author:

Norma Gail’s debut contemporary Christian romance, Land of My Dreams, won the 2016 Bookvana Religious Fiction Award. A women’s Bible study leader for over 21 years, her devotionals and poetry have appeared at ChristianDevotions.us, the Stitches Thru Time blog, and in “The Secret Place.” She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, Historical Writers of America, and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. Norma is a former RN who lives in the mountains of New Mexico with her husband of 41 years. They have two adult children. If you’re interested in connecting with her, you’re to follow her blog, or join her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Goodreads, or Amazon.