Winter's Still Coming

I asked the worldwide internet when magnolias flower. Here is the answer I received:

Most magnolia trees flower between late winter and early summer, with deciduous types (like star and saucer magnolias) blooming from late February to April, and evergreen Southern magnolias blooming mainly from May to July.

Mine flowered in May, like it usually does, but it has produced 8-9 additional buds this September, bizarrely. I am therefore looking forward to this second crop of large, purple flowers. The shrub presumably decided that that it still has some energy left over from the summer and has determined to put it to good use, like someone buying excessive icecreams on the last day of a continental holiday in order to use up the spare Euros.

Might it be possible to behold those flowers and, armed with the internet’s helpful advice, above, conclude that winter is not going to come this year, and that September will be the start of a lovely new season of sunshine and warmth? That would be welcome good news, but it would not be true. Likewise, we hear reports of God’s Spirit working here and there, of a church growing or of a mission reaping. This does not mean that the dark days of judgement are not coming upon us, but that God graciously extends His mercy, much like He did for Hezekiah, King of the Jews. Judgement delayed is not judgement denied. 

Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity. Psalm 98:9

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