Recovering Life #6: Seasons- Wintering in Summer

Winter came unannounced, in a summer ambulance

interupting life’s free flowing dance

The joy of our time of holidays in Summer 2020- reconnecting with friends and family- after a difficult time apart was cruelly and unexpectedly interupted by the bleed on my brain.  It felt like winter had arrived- harsh, cold and unwelcome.  I was sat down from life’s free flowing dance and questioning- 

“What’s going on here?”

The winter of the first Covid lockdown in Ireland arrived in Spring 2020.  It was, in one sense, actually an unseasonably sustained period of dry days and warm sunshine- which softened the restrictions as the garden of nature could be enjoyed.  On the other hand, however, winter had arrived.  The streets in town were quiet and stripped bare, like trees in the thick of winter.  The cool and harsh wind of Covid left us inside huddling for warmth and any comfort we could find. 

The hustle and bustle of our lives was unexpectedly interupted.  This pandemic had disrupted our chasing after progress and productivity to sit us down to pause and ponder- 

“What’s life all about?”

Life is full of unexpected and unwelcome interuptions.  Disease and disaster are never too far away. The writer of the ancient wisdom book in the Scriptures- Ecclesiastes- reminds us- 

The race is not to the swift

    or the battle to the strong,

nor does food come to the wise

    or wealth to the brilliant

    or favor to the learned;

but time and chance happen to them all.

 Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net,

    or birds are taken in a snare,

so people are trapped by evil times

    that fall unexpectedly upon them.

Ecclesiastes 9.11-12 

He is in pursuit of some sense of meaning and purpose in life and yet his quest is incredibly elusive and even wearying.  

“I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; 

all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

Ecclesiastes 1.2

 
“Meaningless” translates the Hebrew word- hevel- which can also mean elusive, transient, mysterious- like the mist rising off the ground on a winter’s morning.  Or like chasing the wind on a stormy winter’s day. We can see it, but just can’t seem to grasp it. 

Hard as it may be to make sense of life it doesn’t stop us trying!  The early days of Covid lockdowns in UK and Ireland saw some signs of an increased spiritual interest- praying and churching more. 

In May 2020 the Telegraph in UK reported, “The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a 50 per cent surge in online searches for prayer as people turn to religion to cope with feelings of anxiety and hopelessness” 

In the same month Tearfund- a Christian charity- shared research showing, “a quarter of UK adults have watched or listened to a religious service since lockdown.” 

In Ireland research by Amarach also showed an increased prayerfulness.  David Quinn of Iona institute commented, “Nearly a fifth of the population said they were praying more than usual… It shows that the roots of faith are maybe a little bit deeper than we thought.”

Does it really show the roots are deeper 

or could it be that people were seeking to put down roots- 

having been living on the shallow surface before? 

The interuption of Covid had put paid to our best laid plans for progress and productivity.  Our lives were less straightforward and linear than we thought.  The unspoken assumption written into our lives from our current Western economic models of slow and steady increase were put aside.  

The world is more round and round than this.  An observation that the writer of Ecclesiates seems at first glance to find wearisome.  There is nothing new under the sun.  Everything is on repeat.  We are unfulfilled and unproductive.  With Covid- winter had arrived bringing summer’s flourishing into the ground.  

In this seasonality there is, however, also a welcome invitation to live in rhythm with the creation- to recognise: 

There is a time for everything 

and a season for every activity under the heavens: 

a time to be born and a time to die, 

a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

a time to kill and a time to heal, 

a time to tear down and a time to build, 

a time to weep and a time to laugh, 

a time to mourn and a time to dance.  

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

We might add- a time to summer and a time to winter.  

We naturally welcome the positive end of these couplets with open arms, but the writer invites us to receive the seemingly negative as also being beautiful- 

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.”  v.11

So it is in a world that is full of disaster and disease, that is hard to figure out, there is wisdom in receiving the gift of the present-

“I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.  That each of them may feast and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil- this is the gift of God.”  v.12-13

In my journey of rest and recovery I had learned to appreciate this present.  Each day was unpredictable and uncertain and greeted with curiosity and a focus on the present day being enough.  I had in many ways never felt lighter- letting go of work responsibilities as a tree sheds its leaves in winter- a leafless letting go.  This felt freeing and liberating.  Just as the ground lies fallow and the nutrients are digested underground from Autumn leaves I was being fed in a deeper way.  The hope of Spring’s restoration in my life filled me with hope, but it felt premature- there was beauty in this present winter gift.  

The writer of Ecclesiastes suggests we may discern the timing of these seasons to a degree and appreciate their beauty, but their full meaning is beyond us- 

“He has set eternity in the human heart; 
yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end… 
God does it so people will fear Him.” 

God wants us to trust Him- even when it’s misty. Yet he has placed in us something that yearns for the fog to lift- eternity in our hearts- which lies beyond our grasp. 

Such eternity is beyond this world and life under the sun, 

but what if He brought it to us? 
What if there was a warm, soft winter sun 

brightening a clear and crisp morning 

which came after the mist had lifted?  

This is just how Jesus’ coming is described in Luke’s gospel- He is the rising sun who has come to us from heaven- because of God’s tender mercy.  

In John’s gospel this new dawn is the bringing of light and life which is introduced as a new creation.  

“In the beginning was the Word,

 and the Word was with God, 

and the Word was God.” 

   John 1:1

This Word then became flesh and dwelt among us.  Just like the sunrise dawning, the light had come- illuminating the face of God the Father was the Son- full of grace and truth.  

The life that this new creation brings is described frequently as eternal life in John’s gospel.  He has brought the eternity our hearts long for.  It is this- that we might know the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3 

This eternal life is not what waits us beyond this world, beyond this time, beyond our bodies- which having wintered in death are sprung up to life.  Rather this eternal life and new creation has come in the person and the work of Jesus to meet us now.  The eternal new age has dawned.  

Here is the gift of the present! 

John fills his gospel with pictures of the life Jesus brings, just as God has shaped and filled HIs creation in a way that speaks of Him. 

One of these pictures is that of a seed.

Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”  John 12.23-24

In the soil of this world there is a “freshness deep down things” from which the harvest is birthed.  Such life comes from death.  The seed for the many seeds. 

So Jesus wintered for us on the cross to bring us to summer.  

Such wintering is to be appreciated as beautiful and glorious in John’s gospel.  The timing is fitting- the hour has come.  

He makes everything beautiful in its time.  

To find such life involves a death to living for ourselves- for seeking meaning only to fulfill ourselves.  Rather when we come to Jesus he bids us come to die.  To give ourselves for Him, for others and in doing this we find life for ourselves.  There is beauty in this wintering.