I was meeting a friend of mine the other day and I’d arrived at the location several minutes before the set time. She, on the other hand, arrived several minutes after it and said to me, “You must be a morning person.” Responding quickly and smiling I said, “In this season of my life I am.” Because there was a time when I was more of a night person, sometimes studying late in college, other times with a nursing infant, or a dating teenager. But seasons change as we go through life.
Another friend and I recently came back from seeing the Fall colors up in the North Georgia Mountains. We Floridians don’t see leaves changing their colors much so it’s beautiful to see God’s glory in the vast shades of reds and yellows when we have an opportunity. Yet within the short time of being there, most of the colors had faded and the trees were almost completely barren — a seasonal change.
All of us go through seasonal changes and do you realize that Jesus did too? Here’s one example.
In the second chapter of John we find Jesus, his disciples, and his mother at a wedding in Cana. When his mother found out that they’d run out of wine, she asked Jesus to help. But note how her son replied, “Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.” (v.4) Then in the very next verse, like a good Jewish mom, she said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you,” and, Wham!, Jesus’ season had changed.
Changes of seasons come and go throughout our lifetime, it’s normal. Leaving home, going off to college, joining the military, getting married, having a baby, living in an empty nest, all of these are different seasons. Losing a loved one — be it a spouse, parent, family member, or friend — also causes a seasonal change, A seasonal change simply means altering our lifestyle, which can occur even with switching a job or location.
As much as we may not like them sometimes, God created seasonal changes as a part of life. As the Byrds sang from Ecclesiastes 3 many years ago, “To everything there is a season.”
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. (Vs. 1-8)
And the best verse of all, verse 11: “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
Colors continuously change around us and experiences bring different shades into our lives, but it’s easier to embrace the seasonal changes we go through knowing that Father God always remains the same. He never changes. (Heb. 13:8) He’s a constant source of stability within a change. So in whatever season we’re in now or in the process of changing, we can know that He’s with us, He loves us, and it will be beautiful.