"To everything there is a season."

                                                                        Ecclesiastes 3:1

One of the reasons I love living in North Carolina (and Virginia where I grew up) is that we experience all the seasons. They may not all come as we would like or last as long (or go by as quickly) as we’d like, but we have them all each year.

As I wrote yesterday’s devotional about “perpetual season of winter” in the book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I started thinking about not just the seasons of the year, but the seasons of our lives. Our existence has seasons as well.

First there is spring. The earth springs to life as things start to bloom and be born. There is a sense of anticipation and energy all around. The same is true of our lives. During the spring of our existence, we are young and full of energy and all the possibilities and promise of life lie ahead of us.

During summer, the days are long, and life takes on a new form. The earth drinks in the rays of sunshine and the rains that fall, and the world around us grows strong and vibrant. There is activity all around as we swim and vacation at the beach and play ball. The same is true of our lives. The summer of our lives is a time where we have “the world on a string”, and we have all the energy of young adulthood. We take hold of life and live it to the fullest as we grow and mature.

In fall, the days begin to grow shorter, the nights cooler, and God begins to paint the landscape of the earth in beautiful colors that signify change is coming. It is a time of harvest as the crops are gathered in for the winter and we reap what we sow and start to slow down to give thanks for God’s provision. The same is true of our lives. In the autumn of our lives, our bodies and our spirits begin to slow down as we harvest from our labors; we begin to reap what we have sown. We see the beauty, warp up in our sweaters, knowing the days of our existence are growing shorter.

And finally, there is winter. Winter is the time when the earth is worn out from the long seasons of planting and growing and reaping, and it must sleep. The earth becomes inactive and there is time to reflect on the previous seasons. In the winter of our lives our bodies are worn from living the seasons we have worked and seen, and we anticipate when we shall close our eyes and rest from our labors.

The beauty of the seasons is that they do not end with winter. There will always be a spring. That spring may be here, or it may be the spring of a new life lived in the promise and presence of God. But wherever it is, it will surely come.

Thanks be to God for the seasons of our lives.

"Father, Help us to truly live and love the seasons of our lives for the gift that they are. In Jesus' name, AMEN."

Grace,

Rev. Dan