Ideas

Reflections: Winter

Quotations on the coldest time of the year to stir heart and mind.

Brad Oliphant / EyeEm / Getty

AS LONG as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. Genesis 8:22 (NRSV)

[GOD] gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down hail like crumbs— who can stand before his cold? Psalm 147:16-17 (NRSV)

IT IS a pleasure to the real lover of nature to give winter all the glory he can, for summer will make its own way and speak its own praises. Dorothy Wordsworth, Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth

LET US LEARN our obligation to thankfulness—for warm houses, clothes, and beds; for comfortable food and fuel to relieve us against the rigor of the cold! William Cooper, Concio Hyemalis: A Winter Sermon

THE COLD autumn rains, the gray austerity of winter woodscape, the pearl purity of December snowfall—all awaken a desire inside of me that, I know, God will not disappoint. Vigen Guroian, The Fragrance of God

I LIKE these cold, gray, winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood. Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

HAVE YOU entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail? Job 38:22 (NRSV)

IN SEEDTIME, learn; in harvest, teach; in winter, enjoy. William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

COLD AND CHILL, bless the Lord. Dew and rain, bless the Lord. Frost and chill, bless the Lord. Ice and snow, bless the Lord. Nights and days, bless the Lord. Light and darkness, bless the Lord. Canticle of the Three Youths

I AM weary of The winter way of loving things for reasons. Richard Wilbur, "Winter Spring"

SPRING, summer, and fall fill us with hope; winter alone reminds us of the human condition. Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook

IS IT too much to say, in winter, that I die? Something of me dies at least. Frederick Buechner, Godric

AND WHAT else was there to do in the winter? Stay inside and read. Or write. Stay inside and dream. Stay inside and look, safely, outside. The Muse might as well be invited—who else would venture out? Patricia Hampl, A Romantic Education

IF WINTER COMES, can spring be far behind? Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind"

THERE ARE only two seasons—winter and baseball. Bill Veeck, "Seasons"

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Related Elsewhere:

Recent Reflections columns include:

Signs of the Church

Christmas Sermons

Autumn

CT Classics

Spiritual Classics

Proverbs

Summer

Philosophers' Potpourri

Ponder These Things

Easter

Evening Prayer

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The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

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The Wilberforce Strategy

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Andrew Walls: Historian Ahead of His Time

The Town that Loves Refugees

Belonging Before Believing

The Early Church on Jesus

Compassionate Bedfellow

Review

Film: Modernity's Art Form

The Suburb of God

Three Models of Hell

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Nepal's New Peacemakers

A Community of the Broken

Rigorous Joy

The Problem with Mere Christianity

Defining Business Success

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Death-Defying Ministry

By Women, for Women

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Shedding Light on <em>The Dark Tower</em>

The United Nations' Disarray

Can We Dialogue with Islam?

Praying the Psalms

Saints Gone Wild

Impressively Invisible

Dollars and Sense

Striking Out the Liberals

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A Boom for Missions

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The New Intolerance

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Go Figure

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My Ministry Space

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News Briefs: February 01, 2007

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Compassionate Conservatives

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What Iraq's Christians Need

Five Streams of the Emerging Church

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Quotation Marks

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Passages

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Bottom-Up Discipline

Mega-Headache

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