The other evening as I was taking out the kitchen garbage, as I stepped outside to my surprise I felt a cold breeze. A couple of days later as I was taking something out to my shed in the backyard, again I felt a cold breeze but this time the breeze seemed a little cooler than the one I felt just two days before. As I made my way back to my home, I also noticed it had gotten dark a bit earlier than it had just a week earlier. My wife says I tend to be a little slow at times but it didn’t take long before I came to the conclusion, summer was coming to an end and fall was just around the corner; the changing of the seasons was starting to take place.
I have a difficult time when anything has to change. I like things to stay just the way they’ve always been but that isn’t the case when it comes to the changing of the seasons. I really like sitting out on my patio during the summer nights and enjoying those wonderful evenings we have in Vegas. I am not a huge fan of the cold weather, though I do like having to wear a jacket or warm clothes and sitting by our fireplace on those cold nights. Snuggling on the couch with a warm blanket watching TV is a welcomed change from those very hot days, yet for the most part I still prefer the warm weather over the cold.
Ecclesiastics 3:1 “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the sun.” Traditionally, the authorship of Ecclesiastes has been ascribed to Solomon, the man of wisdom and son of David. In this verse Solomon is saying man is to take his life day by day from the hand of God, realizing that God has a fitting time/season for each thing to be done. Just as the sun, wind and water, man has appointed cycle of seasons or changes that happen at different times during life.
The problem with most Christians is those cycle of seasons or changes in our lives never seem to come at the most opportune time. We tend to think the Lord has messed up or didn’t see the full picture in our life, otherwise He wouldn’t have allowed those cycle of season/changes to take place in our lives when they did. In fact many of us would readily admit we don’t need many of those cycle of seasons/changes the Lord allows to take place in our lives.
I never liked it when I came home from work to find one or both of our kids were sick. I knew my wife was an excellent mother to our children but I would always wonder if she had not done something or even may have done something that caused our children to get sick. I remember my wife saying to me one day; “Honey, the kids are going to get sick from time to time; there is no way of getting around that.” She would then say: “How will they be able to build up their immune system if they never get sick?”
At the time I thought that was a crazy answer as I looked at my sick children but my wife was totally correct in what she said. It is the same with you and me and our cycle of season/changes in life.
How would we ever know our Lord as Healer if we never got sick? How would we understand He was our provider if we never experienced a time of need? How would we appreciate the truth our Lord was our Comforter if we never had times in life that needed His comfort? How would we be able to know our Lord as the Prince of Peace if we never had times of turmoil or confusion in our lives? Getting the picture?
Seasons in life will come; some good and some bad as Solomon goes on to say in Ecclesiastes 3:2 “A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to uproot.”
I’ve yet to meet anyone who didn’t wish they could live forever and never taste death but as Christians, we know that is a reality for us. When we take our last breath in this life, as believers we know in an instant we will be with our Lord to live forever!
Are you currently in a difficult season my friend? Does it seem this season of life has caused the skies in your life to stay dark for a long time and you can’t see where a time of relief is coming?
Here’s a promise you and I can take to the bank and depend on with everything that is in us. The Lord says is His Word that He will never leave us nor forsake us and that He will surely be with us, to the very end of the age!!
No matter the season or changes we face in life, we can know the Lord is with us, watching over us and that my friend far surpasses anything this world can offer!!!
Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash
Categories: A Pastor's Blog