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Apr 13, 2024 06:00am

Looking for Longer Days

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Where we live, the last few weeks have been cloudy and cold, with either snow or rain or both. In times like this, the tasks we do to care for animals and crops on our little farm do not stop; they just get more difficult. Weather that makes most of us just want to curl up in the house by a fire with a good book demands that we bundle up and limber up to brave the weather long enough to break up frozen water troughs, haul extra food out to the animal pens and run electrical cords and heat lamps out to those who aren’t able to withstand the freezing temperatures. Many think that we are just gluttons for punishment, and maybe sometimes we entertain those thoughts too. But when we have made it through the long winter that boasts short days and limited sunshine, spring’s arrival brings fresh produce and fields full of hay, baskets full of eggs, and healthy animals that are having healthy babies. The joy of the new life and its harvest tends to erase all memory of the frigid temperatures, hours of darkness, hard work, losses, and weary, hurting bodies.

But what most people don’t understand is that without winter, spring can be lackluster, for sure! Winter, if it is very cold and wet, can be hard to endure, but many plants and animals receive a much-needed rest from reproduction during the winter months. Plants that can endure winter do not flower or reproduce themselves in seed in the winter months. Chickens and other fowl will slow down their production of eggs until the days get longer and they get plenty of sunshine. While a mild winter may lead to an earlier Spring and quicker results in the garden, it also lends itself to a higher concentration of weeds and insects that threaten the full garden. A cold, hard winter can reduce the likelihood of diseases and fungi that can harm your plants. The longer these things lie dormant during the cold conditions, the better chance your plants will have of getting established and not being vulnerable to these threats. While I know all these benefits, winter can still feel very long and dark.

It can feel this way spiritually as well while we are waiting for the return of our Lord when He comes to receive us. During our time on earth, scripture says we live in “darkness”, which is a metaphor for living in sin. When God calls to us to believe in Him and accept the sacrifice of Jesus as the payment for our sins, and follow Him in righteousness, we become “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that we may proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light”. But the reality is that as long as we live in this sin-cursed world, the battle between the light of God and the darkness of Satan still rages on. It rages on in the world around us, and it rages on in our hearts. While we have the ability to dispel darkness because we have been made light in the Lord, we can sometimes be deceived and fall into old patterns of what Ephesians 5 calls unfruitful works of darkness. The world around us can also lure us into lowering our standards, which allows darkness to cast a shadow of doubt across our illuminated hearts and minds. God calls us to walk in a way that demonstrates that we are no longer dead in our sins. Ephesians 5:14 says, “Arise, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light”. Fighting this fight within ourselves is difficult to do on a daily basis. Because of this, sometimes, days of light seem shorter than we would like them to be.

Today, I was feeling the heavy weight of both the physical and spiritual darkness on this winter day. It was making me sad and weary as I finished my day in the office and packed up my belongings to go home. It was six o’clock in the evening, and as I exited the building, I noticed that for the first time in a long while, I could still see a glimmer of light. I was reminded of the passage in I John 1:5 that says,” God is light and in Him is no darkness at all,” and also the description in Rev. 21:22-27 that describes the “New Jerusalem” after Christ’s return as “the city that had no need of the sun or of the moon …for the glory of God illuminated it… and those who are saved shall walk in its light.” That glimmer of light on the horizon and these truths from God’s Word have me looking for longer days!