A Seasonal Analogy

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So here's the analogy:  In the fall and winter a tree loses all its leaves and is left only with its scrawny looking, bark covered, branches.  In the spring these scrawny, bark covered, branches produce new leaves, leaving the once ugly tree beautiful again.  From there the tree flourishes and produces through the season until the winter comes again, where the cycle repeats.  

When trees lose everything from their branches and are stripped bare they don't dry up and die, but rather they prepare to emerge from the season and into the next season as a stronger tree.  Each time the seasons come to pass a tree gains strength.

We're like trees.

We go through seasons of life where God completely strips us of things that were once part of us.  God strips us to get us back to the core.  He get's us back to the core to prepare us for the next season.  To strengthen us.  To refresh us.  To renew us.  He strips away the old in order to make room for the new. (Read 2 Corinthians 5:17!)
 
Season by season God is constantly strengthening us.   

Sometimes it takes being stripped back to the core in order to grow into the kind of tree in the next season that God intends for you to be. 

At times it may take becoming weak to become stronger.  

But just a as a tree without a doubt produces leaves again in the spring, know that you can't stay bare forever. Know that you, too, will go through seasons.  Seasons of strength and seasons of weakness.  

So whether you're finding yourself bare like a tree in the dead of winter or full of life like a tree in the spring know that winter can't last forever and spring is just around the corner.  (Read 2 Corinthians 12:10!)

God is preparing you, no matter the season, for something BETTER.

Here's a song that serves as a wonderful reminder:  Beautiful Things