I don’t know about you, but at this time of year I do not like the cold. It makes me feel miserable - and, if I’m honest, a bit bad – tempered at times! Recently I came across an article about the Eskimos. It was by a writer called Gontran de Poncin, who had spent some time living with them.

He wrote: - “Here was a people living in the most rigorous climate in the world, in the most depressing surroundings imaginable…shivering in their tents in the autumn, fighting the recurring blizzard in the winter, toiling and moiling fifteen hours a day merely in order to get food and stay alive. Huddling in their igloos through this interminable night, they ought to have been melancholy men…instead, they were a cheerful people, always laughing, never weary of laughter.”

Well I now find it difficult to complain about the cold after that! But doesn’t it just go to show that the most important thing is not our circumstances but how we react to those circumstances that really matters.

“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” So wrote the French philosopher Albert Camus and how wonderful, in the dark days of winter, to reach down into that Inner Light.

We all have loving memories, bright and sunny thoughts and many portions of happiness, large and small. Let us keep them safe within us and our “Inner Summer” will surely carry us through, until spring returns once more.

From now on, however imperceptibly, the days will begin to lengthen, the birds will eventually break into song again and all around us we shall see the first welcome signs of spring.

It was bitterly cold this weekend when I ventured into the garden to tidy it up. And whilst I was there I noticed that the crocuses and snowdrops had poked their heads through the earth, probably encourage by the mild weather we had experienced during December. You could see that the icy winds had been too much for them to bear and so they had stopped growing. Of course, when the sun shines and temperatures begin to rise, they will start to grow again and fulfil their early promise.

How like life, I thought. All too often a thoughtless word can send a sensitive person right back into their shell and it may require a great deal of patience to restore their confidence again. It would be so much better if we could avoid it happening in the first place and take that little bit of extra effort to bring sunshine into someone else’s life during the dark days of winter.

Sometimes it seems that winter will never end. Some weeks it can be cold, damp and dreary for days. Take heart – for spring will come. Be ready to spot the promising signs; watch for the first new growth pushing up through the grass, through the bare earth in garden borders, along roadside banks and hedges. Each day stems grow higher, and soon you’ll spot the determined buds pushing upwards.

Perhaps the greatest miracle of all is the fact that from a small and delicate wild flower we have developed the magnificent blooms we can now enjoy in our parks, gardens and in the bowls on window-sills.

Yes, the spectacle of renewal can be witnessed every year, giving us hope and reminding us what we can achieve if we accept the miracle and develop it further to a greater glory.

And the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.