I’m a Summer and Fall kinda gal…I enjoy the things that those two season bring most of all…never had much love for the cold weather and the gray days and the chapped lips…but this morning I found myself looking out of the kitchen window at this gray day and longing for the day I’d see a few flurries out there (and wishing for a fireplace but that’s a different story)…I don’t really like winter…maybe it’s the cold or maybe because it feels like and ending to something…end of the summer, end of the year, end of life…but today I’m kinda looking forward to it, I’m putting my Christmas tree up this weekend and that’s always cheerful and makes the house feel warm and cozy…hmmm, maybe that’s it…maybe I’m longing for the cozy…those days when it’s too cold to do anything but curl up with a cup of spiced tea and a blanket and read a good book to my kids…or the cozy of Thanksgiving and Christmas and all it’s traditions…one of my fave cozy moments is Thanksgiving Day when the kids are piled on the couch with their Dad watching the parade on TV, I’m cooking in the kitchen and friends walking in the back door and the blast of cold air and then shutting out the cold and enjoying the warmth of the room and the warmth of the hearts….ahhh…maybe it’s the time together and the being close that makes me look forward to Winter…and how the cold drives us closer to one another, we snuggle more and…hmmm, this reminds me of something my pastor said last Sun.  “It is in the midst of pain that God most often and most clearly reveals His character to us”  If we think of seasons in terms of life, wouldn’t winter be the pain and the hurt and the hard stuff we have to go through..and this is when we should be snuggling with our Father…leaning on Him, resting…yes, resting…and preparing for the Spring when the new things inside us and outside in the world will start to grow…