Seasons of Suffering

Ponder the creative genius of our Great God.  He made it all.  The Original Inventor, the First Artist EVER, and the author of imagination.

God designed the Alaskan wood frog as the only amphibian capable of surviving the frigid Arctic winter. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, this one-of-a-kind creature has the amazing ability to freeze solid and thaw out as temperatures warm in the spring.  At the onset of freezing temperatures, wood frogs hibernate.  Their bodies are engineered by the Master's Hand to pump much of the water out their organs and replace it with large amounts of glucose. The syrupy sugar-solution serves as a cryoprotectant (antifreeze), protecting the cells themselves from a frigid death. Within a few hours, ice fills the abdominal cavity and encases all internal organs. Flat ice crystals form between layers of skin and muscle, and the eyes turn white because the lens and fluids freeze. During this painful process nearly 70% of the frog's total body water is converted to ice. The blood freezes, the heart stops beating, all breathing and muscle movements cease, and the wood frog remains in a virtual state of suspended animation. 

Was God showing off when he designed the wood frog?  (Maybe so!)  Or was He painting a picture of a season of suffering that could only be thawed by the "glory of spring?" 
 
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.  (1 Peter 4:12-13)

No matter what trials we face in this lifetime, there is a season forthcoming that will set us free from the icy grip of world's winter.  Let us not be taken by surprise, let us prepare, expect, REJOICE! 

After all, Spring is just around the bend!