Things to Love About Something You Don’t Like

Dan and I stepped off a flight that originated in Maui onto a tarmac covered with snow. One day we were wearing flip-flops. The next day, Dan was shoveling the fluffy white stuff.

I love Central Oregon in the winter.

I wouldn’t enjoy working outdoors in the snow and ice. And while I’ve helped Dan shovel snow, I certainly wouldn’t relish changing a flat tire in it. I get it. There are people who don’t love winter because they live out in the cold, they drive the icy roads to work, they grow blue from all that indoor-ness. Or, like Dan, they’re so through with snow-shoveling.

But there’s so much to love about winter. Fireplaces lit. Snowshoeing. Pots of soup bubbling on the back burner. Christmas. Sledding down slippery hills. Candles glowing. Wrapping up in a hand-knitted shawl hugging a cup of hot cinnamon tea.

I recently came across an article titled “50 things I love about winter” by someone named Gwen. She started her piece with, “I hate winter. I think everyone does. And if they don’t, they should.” (Gwen and I probably couldn’t be friends.)

Apparently, she grew up near the equator where the only two weather options were hot and rainy. In an attempt to embrace her current place of residence—where it’s cold seven months of the year—Gwen drafted a list of things she loves about winter. (Oh, wait … a list person. Maybe we could be friends after all!)

Gwen had to get creative to reach her goal of 50 things: “Bulky clothes that hide winter weight gain,” “No bees,” and “Heated car seats.” See. Right there. Three things to love about something you don’t like.

Bonnie Sours Smith wrote about waiting actively through the winter seasons of our lives

“Despite the weather, the birds still come. And we still wait for them. It’s not time wasted. As with so many things, watching and waiting are active, not passive. We wait with anticipation, with joy. We fill the winter birdfeeders full of welcome. We have faith, which is hope with certainty.”

We know with certainty that the Creator of all seasons will send spring back around to us. We know the trees will bud, the flowers will press upward through a ground that has finally softened, and mama deer will give birth to the cutest little speckled fawns.

But I wonder if we could also think of winter as a season of growth—a time of hibernating growth while we slow down and hunker in with our families and board games and bowls of popcorn and knitting projects and time to read and learn more about God.

This from 2 Peter 3:

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (vs 18)

Hibernating growth. Using our slowing-down seasons—wintertime, hospitalization, being shut in for a time of healing—to pursue spiritual growth by coming to know our heavenly Father better.

One more thing to love about something we might not like.