Although in winter we may look out upon the barrenness of the landscape, and hear outside the doleful sound of the wind stirring dead leaves on the ground, we need not  be disheartened. We can resist borrowing the bleak lines in that outer world, allowing them to color our heart views, and instead guard in our hearts a sure sense of the presence of God. Knowing He is near, and that despite how things appear, that He is at work for our good, we can be glad. Although the cold and frost seem to hold the earth in an iron fist, Spring is on the way. The frozen streams and rivers soon will be broken free from their icy bonds, yielding to the irresistible power of Spring's warmth. In Spring, life pours itself through myriad channels, and year after marching year Life faithfully shows itself stronger than death.
 
When it seems that evil has triumphed over good, or when the joy of life has fled, take heart. Spring is the harbinger of hope. Just as during the cold, gripping days of winter we can listen deep within us for the sweet minstrel of the coming springtime, so also we can choose to cultivate in our pining spirits an illimitable hope. Reach out, dear friend, for a consciousness of the tender love flowing to you from God. As the Spring is victorious over Winter, so good shall prove to be victorious over evil, and joy over sorrow.

I have observed when I am considering twenty or thirty different desires, that irresolution as to which one to act on (with the degree of required determination and effort to carry it through to fruition) seems to precipitate in me a debilitating mental inertia. As a result, while I languish in indecision, my life may come to resemble the stagnant pools that breed disease. However, I have discovered that when I can direct all my desires into one channel, the result may be more like a river of water, that can run swiftly and can be accurately aimed to irrigate the fields. The arrow of one's focused desire can go straight to the target of accomplished purpose. 

There could be no doubt in anyone's mind who's ever been there that New York City is a vast and very complex entity. Not many of us are cell biologists, but it is likely that we could take the word of  Nobel Prize winner, Linus Pauling, regarding cells: "One living cell in the human body is more complex than New York City." That's just one tiny, microscopic cell - among the trillions in the human body, mind you. And that's just considering its structure. It is alive! Our top scientists are not able to fathom the mystery of life! Far to the other end of the spectrum of complexities are the galaxies beyond galaxies beyond galaxies.

By the cross of Jesus, the righteous decrees of God against us - for our rebellion against His authority as our Creator - were abolished. Jesus fulfilled God's Law for mankind perfectly – not for Himself, but for us. By His solitarily sinless life, its demands were met and satisfied, such that it had no more claims it could ask. By His own crucified flesh, as He offered Himself as our substitute for the punishment we deserved (of eternal separation from God, our Father), the enmity between us and God was annulled, the hostile dividing wall between us was broken.  The apostle Paul wrote that Christ Jesus did this so that “He from the two might create in Himself one new man.” (Ephesians 2:15)