Many appreciate the four seasons—distinct times when the calendar gives way to different weather. The seasons offer different opportunities and blessings. Fall is football and changing leaves. Winter is Christmas and snow. Spring is Easter, flowers, and the promise of warmer weather. Summer is sunshine and BBQ’s.
Seasons can disappoint, too. We have expectations. Spring is often wet and cold. And when was the last time we had a white Christmas? And sometimes it rains on the Fourth of July.
Our life has seasons, as well. As a young person we have fewer responsibilities. Life is often about fun. We get older. We get married. There is a mortgage and soon children. Parenting is diapers for a while but kids grow quickly. Teens bring their unique challenges as they try and figure things out under our tutelage. Before long they are heading out the door; empty nest we call it. Middle age descends unannounced. Grandkids and retirement follow. Before long peers are dying and we know our time may not be long. As seasons come and go, so do our lives.
“For everything there is a season,” writes Solomon (Ecclesiastes 3:1). And a few verses later, “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (v. 11). Just as God orchestrates the seasons, He orchestrates our lives. There can be times, however, when we don’t like His orchestration. But just as God “changes times and seasons” (Daniel 2:21), bringing more cold in the winter and more warmth in the summer, He does the same for us.
I often grow weary of the seemingly endless gray days of winter and early spring. But to complain against the weather is to complain against the One in charge of it. Likewise, to complain against whatever season we find ourselves in now is to complain against the Sovereign God seeing to our lives.
As I write, a handful of our young moms have brought their children to play at the church. I remember that season. It was a busy time, especially for Lynn. With the ages of our three kids, I believe we had someone in diapers for six years straight. That was a lot of cloth diaper laundry! No more diapers in the teen years but other parenting issues surface. Now, with two at college, a new season is before us.
My hope is that we will rejoice in whatever season we are in. We may not enjoy it, per say, but we should always rejoice in it—for it is God who sent it. Each day and season is a gift, the up and down challenges included.
Remembering that there is “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance” (Ecclesiastes 3:4) will help us. We would choose laughing and dancing over weeping and mourning but each has its purpose and place. And lest we forget His promise, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5). There always is a morning for the Christian.
Pastor Rich Hamlin
January 9, 2015