About this time of year, I catch myself being really ungrateful.
"Can we be done with winter already?" I find myself complaining to my coworkers, to my family, to anyone who will listen. "Why doesn't it get warm?"
And sometimes I'm aware of the complaining spirit as the words are spoken. Most often, I only think of it later.
It's hard to be grateful for the last few weeks of winter, when all we want is sandals, a flower bed, and warm weather.
But gratitude is not just a Thanksgiving emotion, I remind myself. And God designed this stage of winter for a reason--maybe I don't understand the reason, but that doesn't invalidate it.
There are seasons in life like this. Seasons of mourning over the loss of a loved one or the loss of the person a loved one used to be. Seasons of restless waiting for the next big thing to happen. Seasons of wondering why God allows things to happen.
Through all of the waiting for the ache to ease, God wants us to be thankful, to bless Him for being good and for being God. He is good despite circumstances, and if we could see the whole picture, we would say that He is good through circumstances.
But it is enough for us to be grateful that He is good. The end.
In this hard place where Mom doesn't recognize us, in this agonizing itch for the weather to warm, in the restlessness for the next stage of life, in this confusion of what life has turned out to be, He is good.
Praise God.