I see the season of winter as an excellent
example of the transforming work of the Lord in a Christian's life. When winter comes, the vegetable world, it
seems to me, reflects the image of the purifying which God does in order to
remove imperfections from the life of one of his children. As cold comes on the wings of a winter storm,
the trees gradually begin to lose their leaves.
Behold the tree's
appearance now! It looks stripped and
desolate. Behold the loss of summer's
beautiful garment. What happens as you
look upon that poor tree? You see a
revelation. Under all the beautiful
leaves there had been all sorts of irregularities and defects. The defects had been invisible because of the
beautiful leaves. Now those defects are
startlingly revealed! The tree is no
longer beautiful in its surface appearance.
But has the tree actually changed?
Not at all. Everything is exactly
as it was before. Everything is as it
has always been! It is just that
the leaves are no longer there to hide what is real. The beauty of the outward life of the leaves
had only hidden what had always been present.
The same is true of you. The same
is true of all believers. We can each
look so beautiful... until life disappears!
Then, no matter who, the Christian is revealed as full of defects. As the Lord works on you to produce
purification, you will appear stripped of all your virtues! But, in the tree, there is life
inside; and, as the tree, you are not actually becoming worse, you are simply
seeing yourself for what you really are! ...
No, the believer's inmost being has not been deprived of its
essential virtue. He has lost no
advantages. He has only lost something
human, a sense of his own personal goodness, and he has discovered,
instead, his utter wretchedness.
The Christian, now spoiled and naked,
appears in his own eyes to be a denuded thing; and all those around him see his
defects for the first time: defects which were previously veiled,
concealed by outward graces. Sometimes
such revelation is so devastating to the pride of a Christian he simply never
recovers.
Throughout the long cold winter, the tree certainly appears as
dead as the very deadest of all trees in the forest. The tree knows no reality. Here is total destruction, it seems. But the truth lies somewhere else. That tree is actually undergoing and
submitting to a process which preserves its life and strengthens
the tree! ... The life deep within is no
longer uselessly expended! Its life,
rather, is concentrated within the deepest part of the trunk and in the hidden
portions of the root. The life is forced
deeper and deeper into the inmost part of the tree. Winter preserves the tree, no matter how dead
the tree may appear. Yes, its leaves
have fallen away and its true, deformed, state has been exposed; yet the tree
has never been more alive than at that time!
During the winter, the source and principle of life is more firmly
established than in any other season.
Virtue has a way of sinking
deep within the Christian, while totally disappearing from the surface,
leaving the outward and natural defects in very conspicuous view! If we have eyes to see, then we see that this
is beautiful. Grace operates in your life in exactly the same way. God will take away the leaves. Something will cause them to fall. The outward virtue will collapse. He does this that He may strengthen the principle
of the virtue. The source of virtue must
be built up. Something deep within the
soul is still functioning. Somewhere
within the spirit the functions that are the highest (in God's estimation) have
never rested. What is going on is
exceedingly hidden. It is humble. What is happening is pure love. What is going on in the inmost part is
absolute abandonment and contempt of self.
The inward man is making progress. True, it seems that the operations of God are concentrated on the external parts of the believer, and even a moment's glance reveals that the exterior things are not pleasant to look upon. Yet, in truth, no new defects in the soul have developed! Only the uncovering of old faults has come about! And, as they are exposed, they are better healed. If you dare the spiritual pilgrimage, you need to remember in times of calamity, and times of what appear to be dry spells, and in that time which men will call a spiritual winter: Life is there. If winter comes...
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