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I have spent most of my life in the part of the United States that experiences seasons. When you live where I do you have a front row seat to the changing seasons. Whether I desire it or not, all around me I see the change that transpires as the seasons come and go. Each season has its beauty, even though each of us have our favorite season. Spring is the promise of new beginnings and fresh starts and spring is a welcome from the cold and dark of winter. Summer is the season of spending as much time as possible outside. The warmth and long days causes winter to recess deep into the back of our minds. Autumn is the ever so slight shortening of days. The air is crisp and cool and harvest is underway. The color of leaves and apple cider are the signs that we are deep into the fall season. Winter comes next, short days, and snow and blustery winds and a biting chill are the hallmarks of this season. We may have a favorite season, but nothing we can do will slow down the progress of time and the advance of seasons.
God has knit into nature an illustration of life that is lived out in the advance of seasons. I have lived some years of my life in Michigan. Michigan has all four seasons, but winter seemed to come and early and stay late. One day I was grumbling about the cold and snow and how I longed for spring and especially summer and frankly confessed that I was tired of winter. Then the person said to me if you are going to live here you will have to embrace winter. So, I had a choice to make, continue complaining about the weather or celebrate the season. I bought some snow shoes and began taking walks in the snow. Susanne and I began going up north the week between Christmas and New Year. We decided to make the best of it, since you can’t make it stop, at least smile and have a good time.
Embrace or endure which choice will we make this week? Many are just enduring life and they are miserable. Choosing to embrace something is declaring since this is the way it is, I am going to make the best of it, and find meaning and enjoyment in the process. Now I have no immediate plans to move to the North Pole, and summer is still my favorite season, but I have chosen to purposely live in whatever season I find myself. This applies to all areas of life. If you are unable to do things you used to do, find things you can still do and embrace the season you are experiencing presently.
Most of us either live in the past or the future. Stuck with what happened in row past and unable to move on and live today. Others are so paralyzed by the fear of the future that they are unable to live today. There is a reason it is called the present. It is all we have and really all we are promised. Therefore as the seasons come and go, and life changes come swiftly, one thing remains the same: The Goodness of the Lord!
