OCTOBER 9-10 – The beauty of frost

“It was good for me to be afflicted so that I may learn your decrees” - Psalm 119:71

The first frosts of autumn have been forecast this week. There is little to rival the beauty of a heavy hoare frost that hangs thick on the trees and gardens. While we are shivering and shaking in our boots and anaraks, this amazing freezing blanket covers a profusion of flowers just waiting to burst forth – crocus is usually the first to venture it's head above ground.

A theologian who knew a bit about gardening once said, “The nipping frosts of trial and affliction are often needed if God's trees are to grow. They need the cold to revive and bud.” What is true for crocuses is true for people, as verse 71 declares are God's way of helping to create something beautiful in our lives.

There are days though in our lives when we feel windblown, raw, and exposed-times when everything seems to be breaking loose - beyond our control.  But the God who brings so much beauty out of a hoare frost, promises to bring peace and beauty to our hearts and lives

Joni Eareckson Tada asks, “Do you feel the nipping fear of loneliness or the biting cold of loss. The icy sting of rejection or the numbing chill of heartache?” Just as flower bulbs need the frost to revive and blossom, hardships have a way of helping peace and joy blossom in our lives. Patience can flower out of failure, and self-control and kindness can bud out of the freeze of brokeness.  The cold of winter will pass.

Our song today - “The Wonder of it All” - LIVE.  Click on the picture to listen.