While reading George MacDonald’s Adela Cathcart, I ran across this quote and thought I’d share it:

“It is not the high summer alone that is God’s. The winter also is His. And into His winter He came to visit us. And all man’s winters are His – the winter of our poverty, the winter of our sorrow, the winter of our unhappiness – even ‘the winter of our discontent.”

That last phrase caught my ear. It sounded familiar so off to Google I ran to identify the source. I quickly learned two things from Wikipedia:

1. The phrase “winter of our discontent” originated in Shakespeare’s Play Richard III
2. Winter of our Discontent is the name of John Steinbeck’s last novel.

This paragraph was the beginning of a Christmas Day sermon by Mr. Armstrong, the curate. The rest of the sermon is worth reading but I won’t quote it here. As we approach the Christmas season, it is good to keep in mind that God is master of all of our circumstances. We can rejoice in Immanuel, God with us in the form of a baby that turned the world upside down.

I know that George MacDonald was an influence upon C. S. Lewis which is the primary reason I picked up the book. I’m excited to continue on, but thought I’d share this quote along the way.