Are the Birds Singing?

I want to be here. Warm tropical breezes, waves caressing my bare feet, squinting at the gorgeous sky as the sun sets slowly over the water.

Instead I am wiping up melted snow and mud on my kitchen floor that has been tracked in from outside. I'm throwing on another sweatshirt and huddling under blankets. Scraping ice off the windshield and digging out from several feet of snow.

Winter has settled in. Spring and Summer are mists of a leftover right-before-waking dream. Even shutting off the alarm and snuggling back under my covers doesn't work to bring back my wonderful illusion of playing in the waves and relaxing on a beach somewhere.

Isn't that just life - with all it's inconveniences and uncomfortable elements? But if I'm focusing on the negatives, I may be missing the beauty of this season of my life. Truly.

Recently as I got out of bed much too early one morning (you can read about my aversion to early mornings here and here) I was grumbling not just about getting up before daylight, but leaving my nice cozy bed to shovel snow. Gritting my teeth, I went outside and got to work.

But when I paused for a break and actually looked around me I was halted by more than my bursting lungs and panting breath. It was beautiful. So serene and quiet. No one was moving on the streets and everything was blanketed in a beautiful down quilt of snow. And then I heard them -

A family of birds were lifting their song to the skies. It sounded like spring! In the midst of winter? Yes! Hope can be found in every circumstance of life because of the One who is our Hope.

God gives us great blessings each day. We just have to look for them. In the meantime, I'm headed back to my nice comfy bed to dream of warm tropical breezes - with birds singing somewhere in the background.

All for Him,

Missy