Seasons of Light and Miracles: Hope in the Winter

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”-Albert Camus

Job 38:29-32 “Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?”

Mathew 24:29 “Immediately after the tribulations of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” (Earlier in chapter 24, it is declared winter and the tribulations came. Then Mathew describes in the following verse, the signs that appear right before Christ comes again. This is the darkest of the days before the miracle, right before spring.)

Winter can seem like the darkest of all the seasons, literally and figuratively. When Christ was born, it was night, and the wise men were guided by stars. When Christ is to come again, as discussed in Mathew 24, it is described as winter with darkness before the miracle of spring and His coming. In darkness when light seems hard to find, we can still experience miracles and hope. It might not shine the same way as it does in the summer, but we can have hope for spring and summer within us to create miracles during the darkest times, which leads to even bigger miracles.

We can experience light and inspiration differently depending on the season we are in spiritually. These verses talk about how God governs the seasons and the light; and in different seasons, different stars appear. We can feel lost and hopeless, but those stars guide us. Thus, we can see different perspectives and see new things depending on the season of light we are in. Each season has different constellations, and God created these different seasons of light where we have the ability to learn to see new perspectives and miracles within.

I chose to have no crystals in this painting, unlike the other paintings in this series, showing the least amount of visible outside light with this symbolism. It is during winter that you must have the strongest light within, which was gathered in summer in your fruit basket.

“I Heard a Bird Sing” by Oliver Herford

I heard a bird sing

In the dark of December,

A magical thing

And sweet to remember,

“We are nearer to Spring

Than we were in September,”

I hear a bird sing

In the dark of December