The temperature rises enough to be comfortable without the aid of a heater; but never so much as to require more cooling than the fresh air gently blowing through the fly screen.

There is a softness to the natural light that brings with it a peace, a slowing down of nature as we head into the depths of winter.

What I don’t like are the below freezing, early-mornings that we must endure first. Sure, it’s a first world problem but honestly, does anyone like running out the door just in time to make the school drop off and arrive at the office before the boss only to find that once again there is a thick layer of ice over the windscreen.

“If I hadn’t spent that extra three minutes under the steaming hot shower then maybe I’d have time for this,” I tell myself. It’s the same thing I told myself the day before, and the day before …

Here is the truth of it though. Without the icy cold early-morning there is no beautiful clear mid-morning. Sometimes we must go through the hard part, pay the price as it were before we get to enjoy the benefit.

How much is this like life?

It’s too easy to complain about the lack of intimacy in our relationships, while showing an unwillingness to be vulnerable. It’s so easy to complain about “the world today” while refusing to pay the price and join that community organisation.

In Galatians 6:7 the author declares simply that a man reaps what he sows. I can’t expect to get something out of my relationships and community that I’m not willing to put in. Sitting back, disengaged and complaining is hardly a biblical idea.

I wonder what relationships or areas of life I could invest in into a little more today?

Where do I need to endure the sometimes cold harsh realities of sowing, of showing grace when grace seems not to come in return, in living generously while greed seems to abound, in being vulnerable despite the risk of hurt that in return I may reap a harvest of blessing, of deep and meaningful relationships.