How fitting it is that the dawn of the New Year falls during the winter season. A new year bursts with hope and possibility as does the season of winter. This season of newness brims with anticipation of what the year will bring and out of dormancy comes a revival of growth.

The joy of January is in the prospect of what lies ahead. The bleakness of winter makes the first buds of spring that much sweeter. Ann Bradstreet said that “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." The sun still shines though it is farther from our reach. Daytime still comes though it does not stay as long as we would like. Without the winter, we would not fully appreciate the beauty of summer.

Maybe the winter season does a work on our heart that could not be done in any other way. The grass and trees die only to be made new again just as Christ died and was raised so that “we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Though our eyes cannot perceive the beginning of new life stirring in the ground, we rest assured that spring will soon be in full bloom. The world is reawakening, preparing for something more. And so are we.

Winter refreshes us in ways that no other season could. At the finale of this three month period, life comes from dormancy as the brown grass and trees turn green .We all know that winter will soon end. The blossoms of Spring will break forth and the days will inevitably grow longer. In the midst of dreariness of the coldest season comes the freshness of new life and color. Perhaps we all need a bit of refreshing this winter.

“Behold, I am doing a new thing:

Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

And rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19)

“We were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)