Changing Seasons
Springtime is always such an exciting time of year. New life is beginning, flowers are blooming, and the world is thawing out. However, it also brings rain, unpredictable weather, and – the fan favorite – pollen! As we all learned when we were young, “April showers bring May flowers.” and we understand that these are all phenomena that make the seasons. Also, experiencing seasons means our world is still turning and we are still alive. I personally love spring because it means winter, and more importantly the cold weather, will soon be gone. I am a warm weather, sunshine kind of person for sure!
As I write this, it is April the 8th – an important day for me and my family, because 17 years ago my little sister Callie was born in a stillbirth. Time has rolled by and again, this year we are experiencing the emotions associated with losing a loved one, my Grandma. Both events have a way of making you really stop and just think about this thing called life. Lately I have been thinking about the seasons of life. They are remarkably like the seasons we experience yearly, and we may be in a winter where everything seems cold and dead, but one day spring is coming and bringing with it a fresh breath of life for us. Not only is this time a special one for me and my family, but Easter was also just last Sunday and that is a celebration of our Lord’s resurrection. All day Sunday I was in thought about how Jesus’ sacrifice meant that my Grandma and little sister have eternal life now and I have the assurance that I will one day get to see them again in our heavenly home. However, for Jesus to get to the triumph of his resurrection and for me, and any other Christian who gives their life to Him, to have eternal life, he had to go through rejection and death.
In Ecclesiastes, chapter three, Solomon speaks about there being a time for everything. Verse one reads, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven”. There is the word season again. Season implies change. Sometimes this change is rebirth, as we are seeing now with the flowers of spring. Other times change is death and the ending of a life on earth. For me this is both a complex and simple concept. Yes, everything must change, and nothing ever stays the same – that is a rule of life. However, I don’t always handle change well. I can never seem to let things go and this is a personal struggle of mine. In my communications class I had to write a report about how the things I chose to decorate my room with represented who I am. While I looked around my room and thought about these things, I found that I have an overabundance of pictures. I have hung pictures all around my room of my times from childhood, high school, and now college. But they are all memories. I hang on to my memories so tightly and I let them represent me. Do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with memories but sometimes it is beneficial to not live in a passed season of your life. Luke 24:5 says, “And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
“Why do you seek the living among the dead?” How many times do we allow ourselves to be caught up in a season of grief or anger over things that are dead? I know I do, quite often. The next verse in Luke 24 says, “He is not here, but has risen. […]” Jesus is alive! He took on our sin, overcame death, now he lives and breathes, and He is preparing a home for us in Heaven. How amazing is that?!
When my Grandma passed away, I remember all the emotions I felt at that moment. Certainly I cried, but the strongest emotion for me was peace. I knew she had fought her battle and this season of her life has been completed. I have the same feelings for Callie when I look into Shara’s eyes and see the love my little sister has for me or when I hear my parent’s heartbreak over losing a child. I am sad because I never got to know her on earth, but her season ending brought on so many new and better ones for many other people, and that brings me joy.
Going back to Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into a man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” The Lord made the earth have seasons so that it could prosper and grow. He has done the same for us. May whatever season you find yourself in today grow you for Him and may you not hold onto the past but learn from it and continue the life He has planned out for you. I know His plan will contain many April showers but there will also be just as many May flowers!
