“Always winter, but never Christmas."

  In his wonderful book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis describes Narnia as a place where it’s “always winter, but never Christmas.” Wow! And you think you’re tired of winter? Winter doesn’t bother most of us until after Christmas. In fact, when I was a child growing up in Atlanta, we’d pray for a White Christmas. We’d been brainwashed by Bing Crosby J. We never had one. Then, when I was a freshman in college, I spent Christmas with my brother and his family in the New York City area, and again, there was no snow. I was so disappointed. I’d never seen a white Christmas and thought that by being up North, I’d finally see one. Instead, it was just brown and dingy. It was a very dismal Christmas.

  Yet, when we have a white Christmas, before you can hardly say, “Happy New Years,” most of us are ready to zap away that monolithic coating of white covering the world. We can pretty much handle it through January and will even suffer with it through February, as long as we get a periodic reprieve of warmth and a little melting.

  One of the reasons that this winter has been so tedious is that we’ve not really had a reprieve. Not only have we had snow storm after snow storm, the weather has been brutally cold. It’s been always winter. Yet, though we joke, groan and grimace, we know winter will eventually come to an end. Spring will finally break through. It’s scheduled to arrive on March 20^th. I’m counting the days and hoping it comes a little early.

  Then, the snow and ice will begin to melt. The air will warm up. The grass will begin to turn green. Leaves will return to the trees. Flowers will bloom. The birds will sing. A world of dull white will give way to a myriad of bright color. Even the sun will stay in the sky longer each day. But what if it didn’t? What if it was always winter? What if there was no hope of spring?

  This past week I didn’t know it was going to snow. My heart dropped a bit as I opened the garage door to leave and found my car encased in a fresh layer of white. Jane and I still talk about the winter storm of May 10, 1990. Shortly after we moved to Wisconsin, we had a blizzard in May. I thought I was going to cry when I saw our greening world blanketed once again with white. It wasn’t a few flakes. We got a good three inches, with some areas receiving six inches. I thought that winter would never end. And that was Narnia.

  But Lewis’ tale is not just a literary fantasy. He painted for us a picture of life without Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Winter in Narnia was caused by a spell cast by the White Witch. And winter only ended when Aslan, the true king, the royal lion, returned to rescue the Narnia kingdom from the curse of the White Witch. Without Aslan, Narnia was a land without hope.

  Are you tired of snow? Is the winter getting to you? Do you find yourself feeling dismal, even a bit hopeless that it will never end? Yet, you know that it will, but what if it didn’t? Always winter, never Chritsmas is the condition of someone who doesn’t know Christ. It’s a life without hope. Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, has not given them new life and with it, hope.

  Can you imagine living in the perpetual winter of unforgiven sin? How hopeless! You’ve fought some dark habit. You’ve had victory over it for months, even years…and then you trip, stumbling back into the tar pit of that sin. Someone who doesn’t know Jesus can only remorse or worse, wallow in their guilt. They don’t know that no matter how horrible their sin is, Christ’s sacrifice is more than enough and then more. He longs to forgive us and heal our souls.

  Can you imagine living in the perpetual winter of depression? Some years ago I went through a serious bout of depression. It seemed my dark valley would never end. Yet, even in the midst of the darkness, I still had hope. Those words so familiar to me as a child echoed back to my soul, even in the midst of the shadows, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Though I hurt, though I wanted to give up in despair, I knew that there was still hope. I was not alone and even the pain was temporary.

  Can you imagine living in the perpetual winter of broken relationships? You feel so alone, so unloved, perhaps betrayed. After my Mom was killed in a car accident when I was ten, I felt so alone. My father and I never did have a relationship. I remember how wounded I felt when one of his wives felt that she needed to tell me that he had informed her that I was an “accident.” But I had another Father, who loved me and wanted me. I was no “accident,” I was part of His eternal plan. Psalms 27:10 was my anchor and is still a precious promise to me, “For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.” I can’t imagine facing a divorce, the death of a spouse, a broken family, a lost friendship without “a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24)…and I know His Name. C. S. Lewis called Him Aslan but He’s the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and His Name is Jesus.

    Can you imagine living in the perpetual winter of economic stress? You can never make ends meet. There’s never enough food, heat or money. A better job, some times any job is an impossibility. There are many suffering in America from poverty. Can you imagine what it’s like though in places like Sudan or North Korea? No hope. Ultimately, facing a death of impoverishment and starvation. So how do believers there survive? How do they cling to hope when it’s so hopeless? They hold on to the same promises that brought the Apostle Paul through his suffering and loss, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

  Do you ever wonder why we continually urge you to share the Gospel? Why we are so passionate about reaching our community, those around us with the Gospel? Of all the things that Jesus could have shared before He left this world, why did He give us marching orders to reach our world? Because if you don’t know Jesus, it’s always winter, but never Christmas. It’s a world without hope and when we have the message of eternal hope, spring and summer for the soul, how can we not share it?