For Every Thing There Is A Season
The wind softly blows. The leaves shimmer and rustle with the breeze, making a sort of musical sound like wind chimes. Another gust and if you listen closely, the leaves scraping each other and the ground as they are propelled along sound like subtle waves. Flurries of yellow, red, brown, and orange swirl to the ground. Watching the leaves flit and float to the ground, spinning as they go is like watching a ballet-so graceful. There is the satisfying crunch of the leaves as you walk that brings a sense of happiness.
Warm fuzzy blankets and hot drinks comfort. Smells of soups simmering and pies baking fill the air with fragrances that imprint themselves into your memory. The amber glow of backyard fires that dance upwards while providing not only heat but a perfect environment for fellowship and deep discussions. Hay rides, tart apple cider, caramel apples and corn mazes provide sweet memories and family fun. Vibrant colors that only an Artist could mix spread as far as the eye can see. Colors that signify death. Autumn proves that sometimes death can be beautiful. The death of Christ was beautiful. Not visually in the way we often see beauty; beautiful in that it means life for me and you.
Letting go of toxic people, losing those whom you believed to be friends, leaving toxic churches, realizing things you believed to be true aren’t… those things hurt and are a sort of death. But letting go of things that are dead and decaying is a beautiful and necessary thing as we watch them float away. But we have the promise that God is never changing and will never leave us. This is also typically a time of harvest. A time that God provides necessary nourishment to make it through the coming seasons. So we reflect on His provision and goodness.
Winter comes and the air smells so clean and fresh. Silent snowfalls create magical scenes of all things blanketed in glittering white. Trees glisten in the sunlight and sparkle as if strewn with glitter. What is dead is covered and made clean. The nostalgia of clomping hooves and sleigh bells fill our minds and the pleasant orange glow of a flickering fire in the fireplace warms our faces and hands. Frosted sugar cookies accompanied by neatly wrapped presents carefully arranged underneath evergreen trees adorned with sentimental decorations are often the highlight of this season. It is a time to celebrate the coming of One who takes our scarlet sins and makes them white as snow. A time to reflect that He found us naked and shivering in the cold and brought us into Himself, clothed us in His righteousness, and made us His family. We are safe in Him.
Then one day, that snow begins to melt away into puddles. What was dead is seen once again as the decaying leaves are revealed by the snow’s melting. Birds begin to fill the trees and the air with their joyful tunes after a long reprieve, giving us the hope of what is to come. Little green shoots pop their heads from under the dead leaves, and the bare branches begin budding, proving that what was dead will live again. Death made way for life, and Life has conquered Death. The hints of green bursting forth from the bland colors of winter remind us that new life is promised and starts out small and frail. Flowers bloom and new life springs forth ever upward, as if stretching after a deep slumber. The rain showers, while sometimes unpleasant, provide what is necessary for growth. And we are thankful we have the One who gives the Living Water that we may never thirst again. This is a time to remember that He is the Resurrection and the Life. We hear the birds singing and know that if He cares that one sparrow falls, He cares even more for us.
Summer’s anticipation drags on slowly as we look forward to a joyful experiencing of life that is thriving. The trees are finally bursting with full grown foliage that sounds like hands clapping in praise to their Maker. Flowers have fully bloomed and the earth is filled with life. The air is filled with the joyful squeals and laughter of our children enjoying His creation. Flowering bushes, salty seas, BBQ’s and campfires waft their scents to our noses, as a sweet fragrance. This is a time of thriving; a time of abundance and often rest. A time to reflect on how God delights in our joy and provides rest in Himself. We praise God that the work of growth He begins He will complete. He is the one who grows and cultivates His fruit in us; fruits of His Spirit. He is the vine and we are the branches, growing only as we are in Him. Apart from Him we are dead, but in Him we have life and have it abundantly. We can see the flowers and know that if God arrays them in such beauty, He will that much more take care of us who are made in His image.
I am so thankful for a God who gives us such beautiful reminders of Him through the year. What a good and benevolent Father!
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living.
“HE SCATTERED ABROAD, HE GAVE TO THE POOR,
HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ENDURES FOREVER.”
Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.
For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.
Ezekiel 16:4-14
As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born.
“When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall and reached the age for fine ornaments; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare.
“Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine,” declares the Lord GOD. “Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you,” declares the Lord GOD.
And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “ It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear 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 throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
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.
*all pictures in this post are mine
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