Winter's Song - Life out of Death

Winter is cold and bleak, harsh and bitter.  In Montana, winters are long and unrelenting.  Howling gale force winds whip up the canyons.  Snow fall is beautiful as it blankets the mountains and valleys, only to create a desert of frozen desolation, inhospitable terrain that expounds human weakness. 

As a hiker I sometimes brave the snow packed trails in Bozeman, but it is with trepidation, fear and a knowledge of my own humanness.  I see the frailty of life and the cycle of death cause the land to fall into a deep slumber.  Yet out of the frozen toil and blizzard blasts, a new hope and a sense of wonder is found.  Life persists in the 'Cold Smoke,' the tundra of existence.  You come to find that some life even thrives in the cold, able to rise above the elements, keeping our ecosystem fluid and strong.

Winter as desperate as it seems, the penetrating arctic breath actually pumps life into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem all the way up to Glacier National Park and the Crown of the Continent.

The snow and ice brings precipitation, water that is a reservoir of life.  In the window of a Montana and Yellowstone summer, the air dry and torrid, hot and intense, it is winter's reservoir that quenches the thirst of the sun.  The majority of all water in Montana and Northwestern Wyoming (as well as the Rockies overall) comes from the winter veil and frozen grip.  Without these extremes, the land would be without life-sustaining water.  Winter also teaches life how to survive, it strengthens and renews, teaching perseverance and faith.  The wild knows that as bleak and dark as winter is the promise and hope of summer will be fulfilled.  There is hope in the most extreme of circumstances, and a living redemption even in death.

Yellowstone itself is one of the most extreme places on earth, with 212 degree + hot springs, Sulphur pots and sizzling mud flows, gas vents and roaring mountains, yet in that tumult is the most stunning and serene life sustaining places on earth. Volcanoes, earthquakes, inland seas, glaciers, erosion and other extreme events had to occur just to create the heart of one of the nation's most important ecosystems.

Even in the scorching hot, deathly hot springs, that would severely scald or kill you and I, God has created bacteria that can survive in that extreme.  Some bacteria are being studied in Yellowstone as possibly medicinal healers for cancer and other diseases by biochemists.  God brings life out of death, Christ is a fulfillment of that promise.

In 1988, fires devastated Yellowstone, burning thousands of acres of trees to the ground.  Biologists and rangers thought all was lost.  Yet something strange happened, they saw nature at work.  The forest had defense mechanisms in place.  Aspens and Lodgepole only reseed when activated by heat.  As the fire raged the forest was regenerating itself to be stronger and to restart the next phase of its existence.  The underbrush that was actually detrimental to the forest was destroyed allowing a stronger forest floor to develop.  While elk suffered from the fire, it helped get their populations in check, while increasing dwindling Moose populations who were better adept for open forests.  If you go to YNP today you'll see countless acres of beautiful, lush, naturally reseeded forests.

If God has created an ecosystem so harsh, yet so precise it can regrow and sustain itself in adversity, how can we doubt his LOVE and care for us.  Jesus came to the world to bring peace and help us to see wonder and hope.  He did that not through conventional means, but by turning himself over to suffering and serving the helpless.  We are all helpless without Christ's loving care.  Instead of fighting the urge to humble yourself in wonder and reverence, fall into trust.  For the Holy Spirit moves us, God works wonders and Christ is promise of redemption fulfilled.  Winter and darkness isn't dark and cold to God, but a cycle of growth.  In this period of waiting, let the spirit move you to embrace life and trust in hope.


So while I grow restive and weary, hungry for summer.  I feed on the spiritual truth and love that in dark times we seek out light and grow in depth and perspective from that search.  The promise of God's nourishment and kindling flame is constant and unyielding.  The winter paves the way for the light of summer.  Christ is the hope for eternal peace. 

Psalm 139: 7-12:
Where can I go from your spirit?  Or where can I flee form your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.  If I take the wings of the morning and settle  at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.  If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night," even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you."

Grand Prismatic Spring, this pool is deep and hot, yet life persists, the colors flowing from the feature are thermophiles, bacteria that can exist in extreme temps.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, carved by glaciers, volcanism, and the Yellowstone River is blanketed with snow, color obscured and the river semi-frozen and the falls a powerful flow of the river tumbling against snow and ice - this extreme scene provides life for summer's heavenly paradise on earth.