Leaves are beginning to change colors, and the countryside looks like a beautiful painter’s palette. The sun is hiding its face much earlier and taking longing before shedding its light for a new day. The local, fresh-grown produce is no longer strawberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers, but pumpkins, cabbage, apples, and potatoes. The reason ...the season is changing. Autumn is on its way.
My favorite season is spring. I love seeing the trees putting on their new clothes and the first spring flowers stretching their little heads out through the earth in search of the sun. My husband's favorite season is autumn. He enjoys seeing the countryside aflame with red, orange, and yellow leaves. Regardless of which is our favorite, we can be assured the seasons will change. (Genesis 8:22)
Our lives go through changes too. Just as each season in nature has a purpose, so is it in life. The seasons are there to promote our growth, intensify our faith, and mature spiritual fruit. Each one is designed by the same one who orchestrates the seasons of nature… God Himself. His divine eye is on every detail. Jesus makes this clear in John 15:1 KJV: "My Father is the husbandman."
I would prefer to jump from summer direct to spring, but that's not possible. So, in life, we cannot skip the seasons our Lord has planned for us. Instead, we need to embrace the time we are in, enjoy its gifts, and with God’s help face its challenges. To do this, we must let go of the past season.
How foolish I would be to insist on wearing my fur-lined boots and a thick winter coat on a sun-warmed spring day. In the same way, I cannot expect to have the same stamina and energy I experienced in the springtime of life when I am moving into the autumn of middle age. I may not like it, but change is inevitable.
Regardless of the season in which we may find ourselves, it is important to remember we can still grow and bring forth spiritual fruit. There are fruits and vegetables grown at every time of the year.
Our Lord has a plan, and He does all things well. There is beauty in every season. Ask God to help you find the beauty and unique opportunities of the season you are in right now.
"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. He hath made everything beautiful in his time:" (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11 KJV).