Winter and Growth...

I had a wonderful lunch with a good friend and fellow pastor yesterday. That's something I rarely do, unfortunately. We had great and very honest conversation about things going on in our personal lives, our family lives, and in the lives of our congregations. After speaking with my friend, as I was driving home, I had a vision.

As those in the Middle Tennessee area will know, the past few days have been a foretaste of the cold air of Winter. I have been watching for the temperature to fall below freezing, because we have some banana tree plants in our backyard. This year we got some tiny bananas! First time! So I wanted to be prepared to cut them down when the cold weather got here and see if we have anything to eat. 

An interesting thing about these banana trees... the stalks are not like trees we would normally think of. They are much less rigid. This morning, when I did harvest those bananas (harvest is probably not the best word... That makes it sound like a huge crop or something...) I just pulled on the stalk they were on and it broke off in my hand. 

As seemingly fragile as this might be, these same banana trees were planted near to a paved walkway in our backyard. They grew up around it, through it, and over the top of it. The pavers are standing on their sides because of the growth of these seemingly fragile plants.

Every winter the banana tree plants die. But if I cut them off at ground level and then take a little care to cover them with sand or soil, in the Spring they come back to life. These particular plants started with two given by a member of our church choir about two years ago, and now we have dozens of these plants, springing up, breaking the pathway, and giving us fresh (if tiny) bananas.

We all go through seasons. Maybe this is a season of winter in your life. Maybe it is a season of winter in your career or in your emotions or in some other part of your life. Spring is coming. It always does.

And with the Spring comes new growth. That new growth may tear down some of the things that are established in your past--like my paved walkway. Maybe those things are ready to be torn apart and replaced by something living, something growing, something beautiful. Sometimes we have to let those old things be torn apart so the new can appear.

Winter stays for a season. It's a bit more predictable in the seasons of the year, but it still only stays for a season in our lives. When the Winter is past, new growth comes. 

Get ready for Spring!