Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” – Hosea 6:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 14, 2020): Hosea 6

According to the internet, which never lies, I live in one of the coldest places on the earth. Who knew? But whether my home really qualifies as one of the coldest places on the planet overall, it definitely is this week. I have a friend who recently commented that she hadn’t had to get her heavy, cold weather coat out yet this winter, but I guarantee it is out now. Temperatures, with wind chill, are plunging below minus forty. (At minus forty, it doesn’t matter whether it is Celsius or Fahrenheit. Both scales meet at that point of the thermometer, and it is just plain cold.) And an area of high pressure threatens to hold the cold air over the top of us for a little longer.

But it is not that we didn’t expect it to be cold. For us, January is one of the coldest months of the calendar year – always. The weather will warm. Hot summer days are coming that will drive us into the areas lakes and pools. I love to sit at the beach with a good book and enjoy the hot summer sun. I tell my friends I don’t feel the heat because it takes me some good uninterrupted time in the sun to melt away the January deep in my bones. But that time of sun and reading will come later. Right now, it is January, and January is doing its usual work to get deep into my bones.

Life develops around a cycle. Outside my office window, the snow and extreme cold are preparing the ground for the spring planting, and the hot summer months that will follow before the cooling period of the harvest and then back into the extreme cold of another January. As much as I don’t like this part of the cycle, the cycle is normal. Part of our climate change problem is that it threatens to break the cycle. As a result, the rains might not come when they are needed, prevalent ocean currents could stall, and famine, fire, drought will be the result. We depend on the cycle.

Hosea understands the cycle of weather on the earth. For him, it is evidence of the faithfulness of God. God brings everything in the appropriate season so that that life can continue on the planet. And even though Israel and Judah have not been faithful, that does not influence the faithfulness of God. Hosea is sure that if the nations will choose to walk with God, God will come to them, and choose to walk with them. For Hosea, the faithfulness of God is as sure as the rains that come sweeping through the land during the winter and spring seasons. Or as inevitable as cold weather in January for those of us who live in the harsh northern areas of our planet.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Hosea 7