never_winter

Never Winter … In Your Heart
by Randall D. Kittle

One winter day as I was thinking about the coldness of the season, I was reminded of C. S. Lewis’ classic book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In the beginning of the book the mythical land of Narnia lies cold, lifeless, and frozen under a blanket of snow and ice. The white witch has made the land a place of a singular season — here it is always unyielding winter. What makes this even sadder (especially for the children) is that Christmas has been forbidden. There has been no celebration of this festive holiday for one hundred years. Year after year things remain dull, dormant, and unchanged, for as Mr. Tumnus sadly tells one of the children who comes to visit, in Narnia it is “Always winter, and never Christmas!”

Yet later, when Aslan, the rightful king, returns to the land, Father Christmas brings gifts and holiday cheer while we see winter quickly melt away before our very eyes. Where before everything was cold, frozen, and lifeless, almost instantaneously we see warmth, celebration, and new life blossoming.

How I wish this would happen for all of those I meet who have “winter in their hearts.” Yes the true bitter-coldness that troubles me so much in our day is not the frigid below-zero thermometer readings outside, but the coldness and lifelessness of heart that has settled into the lives of so many I come across. Their hearts are like Narnia — a place where it is always winter! The coldness and harshness of this unsaved world has settled upon their hearts, and now their lives lay frozen and fruitless.

But as true, born-again believers, we have what they need to be brought back to life again. When Jesus came into our hearts, all the cold deadness of our old life passed away. The Son of God became incarnate — born as it were — not just in a stable in Bethlehem, but in our hearts. For us who have entered the kingdom of God, it can now truly be said that in our hearts it is “Never winter, and always Christmas!” Every day the radiance and warmth of the living Christ who has been born into our lives melts away the frozen lifelessness that once held us captive, increasingly yielding the fresh blossoms of abundant life.

Certainly among men we have great reason to celebrate. We who were once frozen and lifeless, whose lives were filled with bitter coldness, now posses the warming Springtime of the new birth. Winter has passed away, never to return.

But we also must allow this new life we have been given to enliven others. Jesus, the King above all kings, longs to bring many into glory. If we will give Him the praise due His name by declaring to others what He has done for us, the unthawing power of His new life will continue to melt away the snow and ice from even the coldest heart. There is no case too cold, too harsh, and too far gone that Jesus Christ cannot birth the Springtime of His new life into their hearts and turn the winter of their life into a blossoming life. Let us willingly share with others how the Lord has changed our lives from bitter cold to bursting with new life, from frozen to fruitful.