A prayer for the winter blues by Meg Bcker, read by Leah Martin.

You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth.

You've made summer and Winter.

Psalm 74.

Winter pops up in the Bible as early as Genesis 8.1.

The literal Hebrew translation of the word means harvest time or autumn.

But then when I dug a little deeper into the word origin, I found that winter has been associated with feelings of disdain

dating back to ancient times.

Karaf, the root word, also carries the definition relating back to harvest time, but also this one.

To reproach, taunt, blaspheme, defy, jeopardize, rail, upbraid.

Our modern day definition of winter links the season to cold temperatures but there's no denying

the depressive state of the winter blues that can set in during months of being

under gray skies and dead trees. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth, you who

made both summer and winter, the Psalmist praises in verse 17 of Psalm 74.

Amidst dire conditions of a city in ruins,

he still becomes overwhelmed by who God is.

The voice paraphrase of this verse reads,

You have arranged the earth, set all its boundaries.

You are the architect of the seasons, summer and winter.

Winter and summer are completely different seasons,

yet God has a handle on both of them, and us.

He doesn't rip the rug out from our seasonal barometer, taking us from hot summer

...