Searching for Spring by Christine Hoover

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SEARCHING FOR SPRING: How God Makes All Things Beautifulin Time by Christine Hoover, Christine

How God Makes All Things Beautiful in Time

For the utter irony of it all, this is such an appropriate book for right now. We are supposed to be having spring here in Northern WI and on Saturday morning we got about 8 to 10 inches of fluffy stuff and it has snowed two times since. So the search for spring is real right now.

But so is this book. I picked it up, expecting it to be a bit fluffy, about how we deserve beauty and we should strive to always have beautiful things in our life, etc. But that is not what you get when you read this book.  This book is about realizing that God does make all things beautiful in His time, not our time. That means that some beauty will not be seen on this earth, it will only be visible in heaven. We are not made to find full fulfillment here.

Christine has the book divided up into seasons: and for a springboard for the chapter, she uses the verses from Ecclesiastes where Solomon says that "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven, A time to be born and a time to die...." One of her chapter titles is "God is a Potter: He Molds Beauty When We Surrender Control" Ouch, that can be so hard to do, but if we really want to see the true beauty of life, we must surrender to the one who created beauty.  This beauty will not be without pain or the inconsolables of life as Christine calls them, but the end result will be much more magnificent than you can imagine.

A small section from the end of one chapter:

"If you want beauty, then what you really want is purity.

Dear heart, it's only when you embrace God and refrain from embracing self that you'll discover this to be true. The scales will fall from your eyes and the world will come alive, beauty all around. Purity gives you eyes to see it and to appreciate it. Instead of fear, you'll find the beauty in winter. Instead of lack, you'll find fullness and provision. Instead of barrenness, you'll know life. Instead of little deaths, you'll see future resurrection. Instead of sacrifice, you'll see reward. Although you'll live winter with your eyes, you'll experience spring in your heart.

But in the fall? In the fall you must remember: it's the pure ones that are the prettiest."

And so, in a light hearted sense, I will endeavor to see the beauty of bright sunshine on white snow when I would rather be seeing grass.  I know spring will be coming and it is best to work on it being in my heart right now.

I received this book from Baker Books and was not required to write a positive review.

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