I flew into Chicago close to Christmas. The flight over the city was brilliant on the clear night. I could see so many Christmas light displays—not clearly of course, but flashing colors and patterns. Another plane’s blinking lights caught my attention, and my gaze repositioned to the sky instead of the ground. I saw another blinking light, then another and another.
As we left the lights of the city and flew over the nighttime darkness of Lake Michigan before turning to approach the city and the airport for landing, I could see so many more blinking lights in the sky. They were coming from all directions, joining the formations. It was like being in the middle of a beautiful swarm of fireflies.
Living in the Midwest, each of the four seasons is distinguishable. They each differ from the previous and the next. Over a decade ago, I wrote Pure Growth: A Study of Spiritual Seasons. Considering fireflies in winter reminded me of the importance of reflecting on seasons in my own and others’ lives.
God’s Word declares every season is set apart. It is marked by particular events, challenges, necessities, lessons, and purpose. Every season combines with other seasons to complete a person’s life and purpose on earth. Individual seasons cannot stand alone in isolation. Seasons are dependent on each other for context of meaning. Growth is only possible because of the combination of seasons.
We could identify broad terms in an effort to capture the essence of each season: spring=renewal, summer=beauty, fall=productivity, and winter=dreariness. Yet single words don’t begin to portray the full scope of each season. Different parts of the world experience natural seasons in a variety of ways. Different people experience spiritual seasons in a variety of ways. How one person responds to a situation in a spiritual winter differs from another person’s response to a similar situation. How one person celebrates during a spiritual summer differs from another’s celebration. Productivity differs. Renewal differs. There’s variation in spiritual seasons, yet there is also consistency.
Pure Growth, 2012
- Seasons change, assuring us nothing is permanent.
- Seasons change without our control.
- Seasons require adaptation.
- Seasons don’t always make sense.
- Seasons invite awe and appreciation.
Seasons are important, and they are different, but they aren’t isolated. We experience spiritual warmth in winter. We feel the depths of dreariness in summer. Spring can be filled with grief and loss, and fall can bring hope and rebirth.
Instead of letting your calendar determine your season, sit in your circumstances. But don’t stop there. Your circumstances can feel stagnant and stuck; they are a season. Some aspects of the circumstance might not change, but the context of it, your perspective of it, the change it allows or demands, will change. Refuse to trust what you believe about something in your life cannot change. Be realistic, and know the change that can happen is much more creative than you might realize. But it will always, without any doubt, require your willingness to change.
Sometimes fireflies show up in winter.
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