Winter in many places can be a long and dark season. In the absence of sunlight one day does not seem all that different from the next or the previous.

Winter in many cultures is viewed as an ending, death, or bleak, frigid darkness. Poetically, we speak about our winter years as we grow old. Yet, in Hebrew winter does not carry this connotation. In Job 29:4, we read:

‎כַּאֲשֶׁר הָיִיתִי, בִּימֵי חָרְפִּי
“As I was in the days of my youth.”

The word translated “youth” is חֹרֶף/choreph, meaning autumn and winter, the picture of a gathered crop, but also youth. Why?

Winter in Hebrew isn’t considered a time of ending or, metaphorically, death; but of renewal, growth, and preparation. Life is still happening, and new life is developing beneath that snowy frozen ground; life, we cannot as of yet see, but is still active.

Whatever your condition this winter season, as difficult and different as it is this year, meditate on scriptures of renewal, and know that He is renewing you even while you appear frozen in place. Focus not on death or growing old, but on renewal.

Suggestions:

Isaiah 40:30-31
Psalm 1
Psalm 23
Psalm 51:10-12
II Corinthians 4:16
II Corinthians 5:17
Colossians 3:9-10

Be well. Shalom.