The sun is shining today. The birds are singing joyfully and the sky is a beautiful shade of blue. From the outside, everything seems idyllic. Spring has finally arrived in our world, but how about in our hearts?

I don’t know about you, but the pandemic has created a deep season of uncertainty in my heart. I shiver at the cold realities of our world right now. Our lives have all been drastically changed, and it’s hard to know when things will return to some kind of normal.

This season is painful. This season is challenging. This season is like nothing we have ever walked through.

But on a day like today, I look up and I pause. I take a deep breath and I submit to the stillness. I ask God to take this anxiety and this fear. I ask God to help me trust Him, not just at surface level, but down to my very core. I ask God to reveal Himself to me and to others through glimmers of grace, flowing into our lives and saturating our hearts with hope. I ask God to help me see Him working through this uncertainty and to help me seek Him as we all walk through this together.

I think that we all have a lot of questions for God right now about the pandemic and all of the ways life has been altered because of it. I know that we all want answers for ourselves and our loved ones. But I believe that we can take those questions to him and seek those answers from him while still trusting that He will work everything out for good.

I think that we can be scared but still courageously count on His provision and protection. I think that we can feel anxious but still continually try to seek His rescue from the whirlwind of emotions threatening to pull us under. I think that we can be hurting, confused, and unsure but still remind ourselves of the certainty of who God is despite changing circumstances.

I know that’s not easy. I know that this is a time of unbelievable strain and sorrow for so many.

But God is still here. I feel it in the sun’s first rays through my bedroom window in the morning. I feel it in the breeze blowing through the trees lining my street. I see it in the eyes of the high schooler walking her elderly neighbor’s dog for him so he doesn’t have to go out. I see it in the healthcare workers and the essential personnel bravely going into their jobs to care for the community despite the cost to them.

The more I look, the more I see grace growing all around me. Despite all odds, despite the withering effects of a worldwide pandemic. Miraculously, mercifully, it’s there.

So, this season of life feels like winter. But I see the spring in the world around me. I feel the spring taking hold of my heart. And I believe in the spring that God promises when we faithfully remain rooted in Him, in His promises, and in His character.

The sun is shining today. Hope is in bloom. And take heart—the Lord is still working.