Seasons Change
"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1
Many years ago I was going through a rough season as a mom when a dear friend sent me some good scripture-based information on parenting with a note on the top that had the verse above and: "This too shall pass - it is a season." That meant so much to me and gave me a new perspective. Teenagers do become adults, right? Just like when I recently realized I was overbooking myself and had 4 weeks of too many nights in a row away from home and my daughter said, "It's only 4 weeks - you can do it!" And now the first week of the 4 is half over and I'm surviving just fine. Or like when my husband, who sometimes suffers from SADS, asked me last week, "Are we ever going to see the sun again?" I assured him we would and that it was normal to have many cloudy days this time of year. And guess what? We had sunshine the next day.
There are times and seasons in our lives for everything, for every activity. Life is about change and movement and flow. Depending on the time and season we will see it as a roller coaster or a ride on the rapids or a canoe trip down a gentle river. It can be a summer of oppressive heat or a vacation on a beach. It can be a fall of football and turning leaves or torrential rains and homework. It can be a winter of glowing fireplaces and snow angels or frozen pipes and holiday blues. It can be a spring of tornadoes and hailstorms or budding trees and new life. Any season we are in will eventually give way to a new and different one. It is the circular design plan and nature of our God. He is beginning and end and everything about Him and His creation points to that design.
Truth is that sometimes we forget that when the season begins it will be a journey around a circle that leads from that season to another to another to another and back again. And truth is that He controls the times and seasons and all that comes in them. Truth is that no matter where I find myself - winter or spring, summer or fall - the one thing I can count on is that soon the season will change.
So do I cry out for the change to come soon? Do I languish in the tough seasons and bemoan that I am in that point on the circle? Do I find myself always wishing for the next season? Yes. Yes. Yes. And I find many times that I am praying like God doesn't know what season I am in or that He doesn't care. I lose patience. I lose hope. I lack the ability to persevere. I doubt Him. But He is listening. He cares. And He will respond when the time and season is perfected.
Father is so kind and gentle and loving. He wishes alongside of me for the next season to come for He knows what amazing things it holds in store for me! It is His nature to hear the cries of our hearts and want to lavish mercy on us! But He, as creator and controller of times and seasons, also knows that we must endure each season so that the next comes in all of the fullness He has intended and so we are ready. If we rush winter we end up without enough cold weather and we face things like too many bugs and not a long enough dormant season for things to recover and be ready to produce new life in the spring! If we rush spring we end up without a sufficient rainy season to begin and establish growth of new things before the heat of summer comes. Or if we rush summer we have a summer without enough heat and growing season for a good harvest in the fall! And if we rush fall we find ourselves without time to squirrel away sufficient resource for the long winter months...
So if I am praying in a difficult season, I will cry out for change to come soon. And I will pour out my lament over the difficulties of the season. And I will know that even though it remains cloudy and cold with a chance of rain, spring is on the way. My God is faithful. He hears me pray. And He has the next season all planned and ready for me to run joyfully into it like the blossoms that will suddenly burst forth on the Bradford Pears in this part of the world! And as I hope in Him, enjoy the quiet moments by the fire with Him, snuggle under the blanket of His constant presence, and watch for the robins to appear, I have a feeling I will be able to look out of the window of my soul and see the evergreen leaves, the bright red holly berries, and the bluejays against the gray sky! And I will rest in the joy of knowing that each part of the circle of my life is a time and season designed by the Master and that each has its beautiful purpose. And I will enjoy the winter, taking in all the wonder He has placed in it, knowing that He wants me to find His fullness in every time and season - and knowing that:
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11
And I will wait for Him to move me into the next season of my life.
Joyful in the season,
Amy
Many years ago I was going through a rough season as a mom when a dear friend sent me some good scripture-based information on parenting with a note on the top that had the verse above and: "This too shall pass - it is a season." That meant so much to me and gave me a new perspective. Teenagers do become adults, right? Just like when I recently realized I was overbooking myself and had 4 weeks of too many nights in a row away from home and my daughter said, "It's only 4 weeks - you can do it!" And now the first week of the 4 is half over and I'm surviving just fine. Or like when my husband, who sometimes suffers from SADS, asked me last week, "Are we ever going to see the sun again?" I assured him we would and that it was normal to have many cloudy days this time of year. And guess what? We had sunshine the next day.
There are times and seasons in our lives for everything, for every activity. Life is about change and movement and flow. Depending on the time and season we will see it as a roller coaster or a ride on the rapids or a canoe trip down a gentle river. It can be a summer of oppressive heat or a vacation on a beach. It can be a fall of football and turning leaves or torrential rains and homework. It can be a winter of glowing fireplaces and snow angels or frozen pipes and holiday blues. It can be a spring of tornadoes and hailstorms or budding trees and new life. Any season we are in will eventually give way to a new and different one. It is the circular design plan and nature of our God. He is beginning and end and everything about Him and His creation points to that design.
Truth is that sometimes we forget that when the season begins it will be a journey around a circle that leads from that season to another to another to another and back again. And truth is that He controls the times and seasons and all that comes in them. Truth is that no matter where I find myself - winter or spring, summer or fall - the one thing I can count on is that soon the season will change.
So do I cry out for the change to come soon? Do I languish in the tough seasons and bemoan that I am in that point on the circle? Do I find myself always wishing for the next season? Yes. Yes. Yes. And I find many times that I am praying like God doesn't know what season I am in or that He doesn't care. I lose patience. I lose hope. I lack the ability to persevere. I doubt Him. But He is listening. He cares. And He will respond when the time and season is perfected.
Father is so kind and gentle and loving. He wishes alongside of me for the next season to come for He knows what amazing things it holds in store for me! It is His nature to hear the cries of our hearts and want to lavish mercy on us! But He, as creator and controller of times and seasons, also knows that we must endure each season so that the next comes in all of the fullness He has intended and so we are ready. If we rush winter we end up without enough cold weather and we face things like too many bugs and not a long enough dormant season for things to recover and be ready to produce new life in the spring! If we rush spring we end up without a sufficient rainy season to begin and establish growth of new things before the heat of summer comes. Or if we rush summer we have a summer without enough heat and growing season for a good harvest in the fall! And if we rush fall we find ourselves without time to squirrel away sufficient resource for the long winter months...
So if I am praying in a difficult season, I will cry out for change to come soon. And I will pour out my lament over the difficulties of the season. And I will know that even though it remains cloudy and cold with a chance of rain, spring is on the way. My God is faithful. He hears me pray. And He has the next season all planned and ready for me to run joyfully into it like the blossoms that will suddenly burst forth on the Bradford Pears in this part of the world! And as I hope in Him, enjoy the quiet moments by the fire with Him, snuggle under the blanket of His constant presence, and watch for the robins to appear, I have a feeling I will be able to look out of the window of my soul and see the evergreen leaves, the bright red holly berries, and the bluejays against the gray sky! And I will rest in the joy of knowing that each part of the circle of my life is a time and season designed by the Master and that each has its beautiful purpose. And I will enjoy the winter, taking in all the wonder He has placed in it, knowing that He wants me to find His fullness in every time and season - and knowing that:
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11
And I will wait for Him to move me into the next season of my life.
Joyful in the season,
Amy
Thank you God for this reminder. Bless you Amy for writing what he gives you so the rest of us have yet another way to hear him. :)
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Bless you. Pray that I will always respond to Him and share as He directs!
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