
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Corinthians 4:17 NIV)
These past few weeks we’ve received what has to be record amounts of late snowfall. I’m guessing we’ve seen more snow in the month of April than the previous six months combined. Yesterday, I was shoveling my way through a two and a half foot drift when this thought came to mind. ‘Our troubles are light and momentary.’ I gotta admit, I harumphed a bit as I bent my already aching back to lift another heavy scoopful, but I kept thinking about it as I worked steadily.
Spring will be here soon. The robins have been flitting about for weeks. The tulips and daffodils are bravely bursting under the blanket of snow. Today’s thick, wet quilt will vanish in the warm light of the next sunny day.
It only feels like we live in Narnia, as though winter will go on forever. The truth is, it can’t last much longer. Our troubles are the same. They feel crippling, back-breaking and burying today. But they are as light and momentary as a late April snow. God will, one day, allow the spiritual season to change and the burdens that blanket us now will melt off in the light of eternity. Only the character produced amidst the hardships will remain. One day, we’ll barely be able to remember what winter looked like because the sun will be shining and the grass will be achingly green. On that day it will be hard to recall that our landscape was ever blanketed in such deep sorrow.
Today’s heaviest snowfall ever will melt away in the tomorrow of eternity.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9 NIV)
Lord, please help us hold on. Give us the grace and strength to keep digging. Keep us from giving up on doing good but bolster our backs to keep plowing through the hard stuff. Remind us that painful moments produce in us the character we keep for eternity. May we not grow resentful of today’s tasks, but ever more hopeful of tomorrow’s sunshine. Amen.