Desert

“White as snow. White as snow.

Though my sins were as scarlet....

...You will make me white as snow.”

I wrestled awake trying to remember where I had laid my head the night before. I turn over and looked out the window as the German sky had opened up and the snow was covering all that I could see. The night before we had arrived at the campus in Siegen, Germany and was now being awaked to the seasons first snowfall.  As the weekend progressed the snow kept coming and coming- 5 inches total! For me, the Florida girl that I am, the twelve year old came out in me as I threw the hundredth snowball that first day. Although my fingers were numb and my toes were tingling- I had the best time I have had in such a long time!  (check out the pictures I posted to get a more detailed look at the weekend)

The last night approached and as I was sitting on the couch- sipping on a new found friend’s tea, I tried to take in the last bit of my Narnia that I could. Before the white snow came, the dead grass and withered trees were all that surrounded. The leaves had changed and fallen as the end of Autumn concluded and the start of winter had arrived.  

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?...

...My heart shall not fear; though war may rise up against me, in this I will be confident.” Psalm 27:1-3

The semester is almost over. In 26 days I will be heading back across the Atlantic Ocean and in all honesty don’t know when I will be back. Do I want to? Definitely. It has been a hell ride these past few months and one that I needed. It was (and still is)  a time when I have been put through the fire and have had to face the sin that was buried deep inside of my own self. I had to learn to swallow, to let go, to realize when I am crawling that I know I will be on my feet again. To know that in the desert God will provide the living water. In the fire I am being refined. In the battle the victory is already won and I can know that triumph is on its way. And when the Harvest comes, I can see that I am overflowing just to be emptied again. In all of this- in every season- I can take hold and comfort in that God is still God. He is still on the throne and I am going to praise Him.

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed 

that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living.” Psalm 27:13