Icy Fields and Forests
John Miller
02/23/21
- Windstream Mail
R E F L E C T I O N S Thoughts on nature and the Christian faith - 2/22/21 __________________________________________________________________ "And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." - Mt. 24:12 |
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Recently most of our nation experienced a severe cold spell. Many southern states have had to deal with temperatures and icy conditions much worse than anything most of their populations have ever encountered in their life times. Here in Ohio we were more accustomed to these things, but the cold still was hard to bear. I hiked through the fields and forests behind our house to a small stream where I took this image and then returned to the warmth of our home. Everything changes as you walk through the woods in the winter. The snow muffles the sound, the ice encases and hardens all that you touch, and the amazing variety of colors that usually assault your eyes are covered with a blanket of white. It is the same forest you were familiar with, but now feels like a foreign world. The cold of winter does that. This is something that, unless we are careful, can happen to many in a spiritual way. As mankind turns further and further away from the path God has called us to walk, the love for the Lord grows cold and our spiritual landscape changes drastically. We become less concerned with pleasing God and more concerned with pleasing self. Our hearts become hardened and we start to lose the ability to blush. The change can occur so gradually we don't even notice we have become a different kind of creature. We have become hollow inside. We become the walking dead. This coldness of heart and loss of love for the Lord will never happen to one who has been truly born again. But it most assuredly will happen to the pretenders. The beginnings of the separation of the wheat from the chaff can be seen even now. Check your heart. Is it growing cold? If so, plead with God for a new one. - John
