Love and Winter Weather

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the barrenness of the land during the winter months and its resemblance to a curvaceous grizzly. The shape of the earth reminds us of other living things. Now that the trees are empty and the shrubbery lean, we more easily recognize what has been hidden there in months of warmth and coverage.

I’ve noticed another feature in the absence of foliage.
Take a look at how much is revealed about our human habitats during the winter months. In the summer, trees and bushes, shrubs and brush, plants and flowers fill the landscape. We enjoy shade from the sun. We live under cover. Now that the leaves are gone, our yards are exposed and our buildings are bare. Things like random bricks, pots, and tools rest against sheds, visible to the public. During winter, things are laid barren and naked. Life is much more exposed in these lean months.

Our personalities seem to share this same pattern. Don't we all experience winter at times in our spiritual, personal or family life? When good times are scarce, and means are stretched thin…when life is less than fruitful…our extraneous personality quirks begin to show. We are more exposed in the winter months.
Our eccentricities surface. Consider the metaphors we use: “she wears her heart on her sleeve,” or “he has a chip on his shoulder.” Perhaps when someone’s quirkiness, irritability, or discontent shows it is simply because they are experiencing winter - an emotional, bitter cold.

So the exhortation, here, is not to learn how to hide better…it’s to learn how to love people better in the midst of their peculiarity. We never know what is going on in someone’s life.

I remember a community association that met in our church. A lady attended the meeting for the first time and wanted the association to slap the hands of her neighbors who had failed to keep their yard mowed. The community leader shocked me with her discernment when she carefully, yet pointedly, confronted the disgruntled woman: “This neighborhood association’s purpose is to build relationships, not police one another. Have you ever talked to your neighbor? Do you even know their names?”

Lack of relationship manifests itself in all sorts of dysfunction. “Love your neighbor.”
- Tob Adams