I know a few people who love winter. Very few. 🙂 It’s not my favorite season. The stretch from mid-February to the first signs of spring are the hardest for me.
To try to combat negative thoughts about this season, I looked for some inspiration–Bible verses, quotes, poems, and songs that share a better perspective on winter. I collected some to share with you.
Bible verses
He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. –Psalm 147:16-17.
Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! –Psalm 148:7-8.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. –Psalm 51:7:
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” –Isaiah 1:18.
Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters. –Proverbs 25:13.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11.
Quotes
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and the blood. –John Burroughs
Glory follows afflictions, not as the day follows the night but as the spring follows the winter; for the winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory. —Richard Sibbes
Our winters shall not frown for ever; summer shall soon smile. The tide will not eternally ebb out; the floods retrace their march. The night shall not hang its darkness for ever over our souls; the sun shall yet arise with healing beneath his wings. – ‘The Lord turned again to the captivity of Job.’ Our sorrows shall have an end when God has gotten his end in them. –Spurgeon
Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. –Edith Sitwell
One kind word can warm three winter months. –Japanese Proverb
Poems
One of the most famous poems set in winter is “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, which can be read here.
An excerpt from “November” in A Child’s Calendar by John Updike:
The stripped and shapely
Maple grieves
The loss of her
Departed leaves.
The ground is hard,
As hard as stone.
The year is old,
The birds are flown.
And yet the world,
Nevertheless,
Displays a certain
Loveliness –
The beauty of the bone.
An excerpt from “Winter Morning” by Alexander Pushkin:
The snow below the bluish skies,
Like a majestic carpet lies,
And in the light of day it shimmers.
The woods are dusky. Through the frost
The greenish fir-trees are exposed;
And under ice, a river glitters.
“Winter-Time” by Robert Louis Stevenson
Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.
Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.
Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.
When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.
Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding-cake.
“The Winter Evening” is a long poem that’s part of an even longer poem in six “books” titled “The Task” by William Cowper. Here are just a few lines from it:
Songs
There are fun songs, like “Winter Wonderland,” Let It Snow,” and “Snow” from the film White Christmas. Then there are these meaningful ones.
“In the Bleak Midwinter”
“The Snow Lay on the Ground”
“See, Amid the Winter Snow”
“Whiter Than Snow”
“Winter Song,” also seen as “Tis Winter Now.” This one was new to me. The author was Samuel Longfellow, brother of Henry Wadsworth. I wouldn’t agree with his general theology, but this song was lovely.
Are you feeling more kindly disposed to winter now? I’m still eager for it to get over and for spring to come. But winter has its beauties as well.
Stray Thoughts 