There is Hope: The beauty of Your love

Description

In the spring of 2024, I was walking a stretch of the Cleveland Way between Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby. It was one of those rare and radiant days that seem to lift the very soul – when the air is crisp with promise, the earth smells freshly awakened, and simply being alive feels like a gift newly unwrapped. The cliffs are to my left and the endless swell of the North Sea are to my right. I felt a stirring inside me – an urge to capture what I was seeing and hearing. So, I pulled out my phone and began to speak aloud, naming the beauty in front of me as quickly as it appeared. I didn’t try to shape poetry or compose lines; I simply testified to the moment.

Later, when I got back home and listened to it again, I realised those spoken words carried something special. There were a simplicity and honesty to them. I felt inspired that I shaped them into a song, pretty much word for word, just as I saw it.

Everywhere I look
All I see is blue sky,
And the sun burning down,
Glistening on a clear northern sea.
The sparrows sing their song
To say hello to springtime,
And the leaves start to cheer
As wind blows through the old oak tree.
And everywhere I go
I see the footsteps of creation.
And everywhere I go
I see the beauty of Your love.
Everywhere I look
All I see is heaven.
As the clouds melt away
I can feel the warmth of the breeze.
Hear the pounding of the sea
As it breaks up the shoreline,
The lambs hear the call
And run into their mother’s arms.

Those words from that spring walk stuck with me. When the dark winter mornings arrive (as they do)—you know, the ones where you open the curtains and wonder why it’s still pitch black— remembering those words takes me straight back to that spring day. Just thinking about it warms me up.

In Genesis 8:28, it says,
“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease”

This verse sits within God’s covenant with Noah, a divine promise that the world would never again be washed clean by destruction. The rainbow, the turning of the seasons, the dependable rhythm of cold and heat, sunrise and dusk are not merely cycles of nature, but testimonies of God’s faithfulness. They whisper that creation is upheld by loving hands, preserved under a grace that renews itself again and again.

The footprints of creation I sensed on the cliffside—and the beauty of God’s love woven through sparrows’ songs and dancing leaves—are not confined to spring. They pulse through every season. Each one carries its own purpose, its own textures of joy and sorrow, work and rest, sowing and gathering. Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us of these sacred contrasts: a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted. Fourteen pairs of seasons, each one appointed, none wasted.

God is with us in every season of our lives.
If, in winter, He leads a hedgehog to hibernate or geese to migrate how much more does He prepare us for seasons we go through.

However, understanding the season we are in can steady the soul. We prepare differently for winter than for summer. We dress differently, plan differently, hope differently. In winter we reach for a thick coat; in summer we may not even need a cagoule. In spring we plant what we hope to enjoy in autumn; in autumn we gather what spring once dared to promise.

What season are you in?
Is it springtime, a season for nurturing your children, planting values deep into their hearts?

Is it summer, a time of fruitfulness, of work, of energy rising?

Is it autumn, when cherished moments with loved ones glow warm like golden leaves?

Is it winter, a time of endurance, contemplation, or grief?

Wherever you are—walking sunlit cliffs in spring, toiling in soil under a summer sun, sitting by a winter fire, or stumbling through a storm of loss— God is with you. His presence does not migrate with the seasons. His love does not hibernate or fade. In the pounding waves, in the silent snows, in the first buds of hope or the final falling leaves, He is there.

And if you look closely –
everywhere you go,
you may just see the footsteps of creation
and the beauty of His love.

Prayer
Lord, You know every season of my life far better than I ever could, and You walk with me through each one. I ask You to show me clearly what season I’m in, whether it’s a time to plant, to grow, to harvest, or to rest. If You’re calling me to begin something new, help me step forward in faith; if it’s a time of waiting or slowing down, give me patience and peace. Prepare my heart for whatever You’re shaping in me, giving me wisdom to choose well, courage to keep going when You say “go,” and trust to be still when You say “wait.” Guide me through this season and ready me for the next, so that in every change—every high and low, every beginning and ending—I stay close to You. Amen.