Snow and Hope

Storm Qadir slammed Colorado this March, dumping over fifty inches of snow in some places. Lakewood alone got over a foot of heavy spring snow, blanketing our campus in white. Oh, if only it had come a bit sooner—say, in December in time for Christmas? But no, in true Colorado style, our Winter Wonderland comes in the spring. 

As a Colorado native, I can attest that spring is one of the most depressing seasons of the entire year. Flowers start poking out of the ground, trees begin to bud, and the ugly brown landscape starts to green up a bit, only to have it all crushed by storms like Qadir. Colorado’s season of birth and regeneration is a bit like traffic on I-25: stop-and-go. 

That being said, as a Colorado native, I have never seen spring fail to come eventually. That’s twenty years of spring, somehow, winning. Every. Single. Time. But every year, I can’t help but wonder if the trees will ever leaf out, if the daffodils will ever make their way up out of the snow. No matter how many times I watch spring make its halting appearance, there’s still a nugget of doubt. I wonder if winter will last forever.

My faith in God can be a bit like my faith in spring; no matter how many times I watch God move in my life, I still have that nugget of doubt when I’m going through what feels like a hopeless season. I wonder if this season will last forever. 

I keep a journal and have for years—I can quite literally prove to you through my own writing that hard times always come to an end eventually. I can show you God’s hand in my life, working things out for good. But even that doesn’t assuage the doubt that creeps in from time to time. I wonder if this season will last forever.

But it never does. 

Brother or sister, please listen. It never does.

Just like how Colorado winters always give way to spring, your season of suffering will always change. God promises us that he works all things for good for those who love him (Romans 8:28). That’s you. 

Even when it feels like your hope is unbearably crushed by the heavy snow of utter despair, when it’s all you can do to just get out of bed in the morning, remember that this season will come to an end. Things will change, things will get better. And someday you’ll be able to look back at this season of hopelessness and realize that God was there, buried under the snow right alongside you. And when that despair melts and life blooms again like a bright yellow daffodil, God will be there too.