Here in Massachusetts, the days are getting shorter and colder now that Winter is right around the corner. Although I love the change in seasons we enjoy here, it’s hard not to miss the golden afternoons and long evenings of Summer.
We sold our house in August, so I missed out on the harvest phase of my garden. I didn’t get to put the garden ‘to bed’ either, a task that has always helped me reconcile with the end of sunny days and green spaces. I do like the slow change to gold and brown and the turning leaves are stunning. Still, Autumn has seemed too short, and we’re now in the gray days in between seasons.
Winter feels like waiting. Nature is quieter, hunkered down to survive the cold and the dark until the light returns. For folks sensitive to the loss of light, it can feel oppressive. Those grieving sometimes struggle with the change too. Things seem darker, even less hopeful. It doesn’t help that the world is filled with discord and conflict today. When it feels overwhelming, I remember that this is just a season, the light will return. God designed it that way.
I remember the first chapter of John, verse 4-5. “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” God provides us not only with the light we can see, but through faith in Jesus Christ, the light that can save us. And humans need saving, whether they’re in a season of darkness or not.
The bright lights and festive joy of Christmas is coming right up. A time for us to remember the gift God gives to us all, if we have the faith to receive it, to be in the light that darkness cannot overcome.
Christa MacDonald is a 2017 Carol Award finalist for contemporary Christian fiction. She began her writing career at the age of eleven, filling a sketchbook with poems and short stories. After publishing a few short pieces in her college’s literary magazine she took a long hiatus during which she embarked on a few different careers, got married, had three kids, and renovated an old barn masquerading as a house. kids, and renovated an old barn masquerading as a house. The Broken Trail, published by Mountain Brook Ink, was her debut novel. At The Crossroad and The Redemption Road completed the Sweet River Redemption series. The first two books are available on Audiobook.
Katherine Grant takes the job at Sweet River Christian Academy hoping a small town in the wilderness of Maine will be a vacation from her high-powered career and a break from the emotional toll of the secrets she has buried deep. With the school director on a power trip and evidence of shady dealings, there’s nothing relaxing about it. Maybe it would be easier if she wasn’t so distracted by Captain MacAlister, the local cop she can’t get along with, yet can’t get out of her head. She didn’t trek up to the middle of nowhere to lose her heart.
Mac doesn’t need the kind of trouble he believes Katherine will bring. He’s got enough to deal with from poachers to drug crime. Mac has rules to maintain his faith, like avoiding the pull of an attractive woman who doesn’t fit his life. But when he meets Katherine, he’s drawn in by her intelligence and strength, despite getting burned by her quick temper.
When near tragedy strikes, Katherine reveals her feelings, and Mac doesn’t hesitate to respond. If only their scars, both seen and unseen, didn’t threaten to tear them apart. Two wary hearts must soften and two steel wills bend if they have any hope of making it down the broken trail to love.
