Pearls of Great Value

Glances of light streaming through my window. Crystals dancing on the table. On the wall a shimmer of rainbow, as the vibrancy of the light reflects and ricochets off the ice. It’s the sparkle of the sun on the fresh snow that is now decorating my home. Winter coming inside to say hello. It causes me to be lost in thought, this world outside my window. How can it be be so transformed? What once was a pile of rocks is now covered in a blanket and all I see is a gentle hill. An invitation to come and sit. The shrub I messed up on in pruning now looks perfection in its new robe. It’s proudly displaying all the wonders of winter, as frost like a necklace adorns its branches. Forgotten the mistakes of yesterday. And look! Brown has disappeared from view and the brilliance of white has come unto the scene. It’s a cleaning house kinda moment, as white paints over the easel leaving no space untouched. It haughtily turns up its nose and I can hear the “so there!” as it finishes the final stroke. What was was mundane, is now cloaked in splendor. The same but changed. Here is full on transformation before my eyes. Here is a glimpse of glory on display. Here is winter being my teacher, pointing to God Himself. Pointing to the new life. New birth.

The cold nip on my cheeks as I stick my head out the window reminds me to be careful. This is the kinda season where one can’t stand still for too long. Oh!, but who want to? This sets my soul to dancing! I close my eyes and yet still the brilliance of light is felt deep inside. I breathe in. How can air be this fresh? And as night makes itself known, even here winter touches the atmosphere. It displays itself in dancing, in wispy flashes of color. It can’t be denied and the heavens declare the glory of the Lord!

Winter stirs in me. There is not only beauty in this season, but also the opportunity for transformation. Winter teaches us the ability to take a pile of rocks and create something of beauty. It shows us how love works; snow covers the whole earth and makes it shimmer, just as love covers a multitude of sins. It tells us the age old story of, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, we will be changed. Winter speaks of how the old is gone, behold the new has come. White as snow! Though our sins be scarlet red, He washes us whiter than snow.

God really is the best artist! He uses the times and seasons to paint before our eyes and speaks louder than words ever could. Here is breathtaking beauty and if earth can look like this I can’t help but imagine what heaven will be like. Will I see love shimmer all around me? Will I close my eyes and breathe in the freshness of everything around me? Will the light of Jesus Christ radiate in such splendor I’ll stand in awe? Deep inside I feel this incredibly powerful longing for a place that I haven’t been to yet. My eyes see it from afar and I glimpse it from time to time really close in my heart. How can it be otherwise? He’s captured my heart! And one day. One day we’ll all be cloaked in white, in the splendor of purity alike. In radiant beams we’ll shine, reflecting the light of Jesus. It will be glorious to behold!

Winter reminds me, we already have a piece of eternity inside. He is what pulls us like a magnet towards heaven where eternity is calling our name. This call is going forth to all the world, its echo a vibration all around us. Can you hear it? Do you see it? Close your eyes. Open your heart. Listen. See. Let Him touch you once again. Eternity is real.