Seasons of Life

Life in south central Texas does not allow us to enjoy the changing of the seasons like other parts of our country. We basically have one season: Hot and then there is the 3 days of cold that are not enough to even qualify as a season. If we are really lucky we might have three weeks of open window weather.….again, not enough to claim season status. This is the natural world; or at least the part where we live.

Life and growing up, then growing older seems to have a natural rhyme and reason to it. I believe I am in the ‘Autumn’ of my life….whatever that really means. Apparently it means my Spring Chicken days are over and I am no longer in an age to be raising young….whoo-hoo! I have been curious as to where my ‘Summer’ stage of life has gone. You never really hear much about the Summer part, do you? I’m thinking that must be the part where you are so busy working and raising your family you don’t have time to think about seasons of your life. It flies by and you don’t even know it has come and gone. One day, you just wake up with achy joints and think, “Oh my! It must be Autumn!” No one ever tells you when ‘Winter’ is setting in…..hmm, maybe I need to give more thought to what my current season may be.…

I don’t get excited about global warming and the changes it may bring because my God set the seasons in motion and my God is still in control and my God has a plan with a purpose! It says so in the Bible in Ecclesiastes 3:1-14. Here is what it says:

TO EVERYTHING there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven:

A time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted,

A time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to break down and a time to build up,

A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

A time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away,

A time to rend and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and a time to speak,

A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

What profit remains for the worker from his toil?

I have seen the painful labor and exertion and miserable business which God has given to the sons of men with which to exercise and busy themselves.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men's hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to be glad and to get and do good as long as they live;

And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor--it is the gift of God.

I know that whatever God does, it endures forever; nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. And God does it so that men will [reverently] fear Him [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is].

It’s reassuring to know I am in tune with God’s plan and purposes, walking through life as the seasons come and go just as He intended. Regardless of what stage of life the world tells me I am in, I am still in line with God’s plan. I can live with the changes to my body, hair color, eye sight, etc….I can live without fear of global warming or any other man-made calamity because God’s plan made provisions from the beginning. He is not surprised by it, not caught unaware. Therefore, I can rest assured that His plan cannot be rattled by mortal man. Where ever you are on the sliding scale of life, God has got you covered! Takes a lot of pressure off, doesn’t it?