Why we welcome winter in the garden!
I'm sure it serves as no surprise to you to hear me say that winter might be my least favorite season. While I adore a good snowfall, snuggly nights by the fire and endless days to read curled up in a chair - winter is hard for me to fully embrace.
Being in my garden has given me a new appreciation and dare I say, love (?) for winter though and here is why.
Tulips.
There is so much more to tulips than what I previously thought I knew. I used to disregard them because I had decided they weren't for me (read about that here).
I am forever being proven wrong by my garden and it seems tulips are my most faithful teacher.
So, let me tell you about tulips!
Tulips need winter. They need several solid weeks with freezing temperatures to enable them to reach their fullest capacity.
No winter? No (natural) tulips.
In fact, no cold and they don’t produce as well- short stems, small buds etc. and fail overall as a crop.
Winter, it seems, is not a wasted season in the garden.
If I'm honest, I think I avoid winter so much in the outside because for the past several years, it has felt a bit like winter... inside.
When my husband changed careers it put a big "pause" button on our family's lives. We have been in a season of waiting for five years now and although I catch glimpses of the Spring thaw and movement, there is a tendency to wonder what all this waiting was for?
Winter can feel wasted.
Can feel stagnant.
I've never been good at waiting. I did what I wanted, when I wanted and suffered the consequences, I mean, learned the lessons of jumping in "heartfirst" into all things.
I prefer to move. Not wait.
Summer to winter.
But here's the thing I am realizing...
Winter is necessary for tulips.
Winter is necessary for deeper heart things inside of me.
Maybe just maybe you find yourself like me?
Maybe you're in a season of winter, of wondering, of waiting.
What good is there in winter?
Perhaps this season of cold will produce in us stronger, taller stems and blossomy buds like we’ve never experienced before.
If we embrace the winter and wait patiently for the spring.
Love, remember. There is a reason.
You are not abandoned. You are not alone. You are not forgotten.
Our God loves you with a wild love and has a purpose He is working out in your life.
The tulip blooms only after a cold frozen winter.
Be like a tulip.
Forward this post on to a friend who needs encouragement today!
