The Day the Fog Lifted…Spring for Our Weary Hearts By Stephanie Goddard

Hi everyone, please meet Stephanie Goddard, my good friend and another one of my writing critique partners. We’ve been meeting since March 2021. There are four of us, and each has contributed to my writing ability!

Stephanie lives in New Hampshire and has a way of bringing you into a scene, where you can see, smell, and enjoy the fresh air.

Please welcome her and enjoy her stirring post.

Happy Easter everyone!

The Day the Fog Lifted…Spring for Our Weary Hearts

By Stephanie Goddard.

Sometimes, winter in New Hampshire lasts forever.

When my children were young, my daily route driving them to school took me past the big lake. During winter, the bay ices over, and by February, is magically transformed into an ice fishing village dotted with bob houses, food vendors, bait shops, and even a church. Most winters, ice covers the lake from sometime in January through mid-April. As winter winds down, the talk of the town is “When is ice-out?” Local folks take bets on what day the lake will be declared free of ice.

One week in late winter, a thick fog hung over the icy lake. For days on end, dense fog and drizzle concealed the view. Each morning, as I drove past, I searched for the familiar outline of the lake, but through the heavy fog, I could barely make out the nearby shoreline. The gentle hills across the lake had disappeared. Summer houses that dotted the opposite shore were gone. The fog brooded over the lake, like the spirit of God over the face of the deep during creation. On the nearby shore, dim morning daylight reflected in a small pool of water.  I couldn’t discern if it was the ice having melted or puddles of rainwater from the previous night’s shower settling on top of the ice.

One morning, after three dull, dreary days in a row, a thin line of blue accented the lake’s horizon just above a flat layer of mist and below the clouded sky. I lowered my car window, warmth and moisture filling me with hope. Could it be? Spring was in the air!

On my return trip, after dropping the kids off at school, a wonderous sight met me as I approached the lake. The scene was so different from recent days that I had to park the car to take it in. Bright morning sunshine beamed across the lake.

The fog had lifted.

Miraculously, magically, the frigid, dreary layer of ice that had covered the lake for months was no more, replaced by glimmering water sparkling in the morning sunshine. The surface rippled gently, reflecting the blue sky. I looked across to the far shoreline, now crisp and clear, like a breath of fresh air or looking through a newly cleaned window.

Life can feel like looking through the fog. The beauty is hidden. We go through times when our purpose is unclear or the next step in life is shielded from view. Sometimes the cares and worries of life have settled on us like a cloud. We need the fog to lift.

As I took in the beauty of the lake and let the freshness of spring wash over me, my thoughts turned to Good Friday and Resurrection Day. All that had blurred and dimmed our world was dispelled when Jesus went to the cross and gave up his life for us. The world surely felt dark and dreary to Jesus’s disciples when their friend and rabbi, the one they had begun to know as Messiah, died. But it is in the midst of the fog where frozen hearts melt.

Spring ripped life out of winter’s hands, like the veil tore in two when Jesus gave up his spirit on the cross. Like the fog lifting, Jesus rose from the grave on the third day.  When he did, a new season began, like spring for our weary hearts.

This reminder flooded me with renewed joy and hope, even greater than the blessing of spring after a long winter.

When it seems like winter will never end, God causes the tilt of the earth and its movement around the sun to bring the warmth and newness of spring.  As we surrender to Him as our Lord and Savior, the resurrection power of Christ is available to resurrect us too – To melt the ice of winter, lift the fog, and bring a fresh new day.

 

Stephanie Goddard is a wife, mom, Grammie, and author from Sandwich, New Hampshire, where she operates a small vegetable farm.  She writes Christ-centered contemporary women’s fiction and romance. She has completed three full-length novels and three novellas. She is a contributing author to the devotional book The Courage to Write (2021). Her passion for writing is birthed from her desire to show—through story—the mighty, redemptive, and healing power of Christ.