I woke this morning to a sound I haven't heard in months. At first I thought I was dreaming, but as the sound started floating to the surface of my consciousness, I opened my eyes and discovered that it was real ... I heard birds singing!
I grabbed my phone and checked the time and temperature. It was 7:20 A.M and the temperature was 36 degrees. 36! Pulling back the curtains I could see the sky, completely clear of clouds and the sun reflecting on the hills in the distance as it came up over the top of my apartment building. I was so happy to hear that sound, and see that sight, that I thought I would cry.
We've just come out of a nasty, seemingly forever Arctic cold blast that almost brought our little corner of the world to a standstill. The high temperatures never made it out of the single digits and the wind chills hit -38 below zero. The normal lows without the wind chills were below zero every night for over a week. So you can imagine what a blessing it felt like to not only see and feel the end of the frozen nightmare, but to hear the birdsong outside of my window as if the birds were singing a new and better day awake. At that moment I remembered something I'd heard somewhere in the past: the sound of birds singing after a long, cold snap is God's way of telling you "hang in there, it won't be much longer."
I know the winter outside can sometimes feel as if it will go on forever, but it never really does. Spring always comes, just as summer will come, and then fall. Mother Nature never makes a promise that she doesn't keep. The same is true for the winters in our own lives. No storm lasts forever. The sun will rise again, a new day will be born, and each day is filled with infinite possibilities. It's up to us to sing the new day awake and make the choice to look for the songs within all of us.
After church this morning, I went home and drew back all of the curtains to let the sunshine in. The forecast is for warmer weather for the next several days although not all of them will be sunny and we may even see some rain and snow, but just like the reminder I got from Mother Nature this morning, I know the birds will sing again soon, and the sun will come up, and winter won't really last forever even if it feels like it will. After all, if you can't believe the one who sponsor's spring in the first place, who can you believe?
And so it is.
