So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil.
Deuteronomy 11:13-14(NIV)
God is God of seasons. That is a wonderful concept to me. When I am in the cold, rainy days of winter, I long for that sunny day when trees begin to bud and daffodils and pansies just begin to appear in the local nursery! But if the weather was always ‘spring’ would I appreciate it? Maybe I need some winter days to love the beauty of the spring! When the hot, humid days of summer seem to drag on, I long for the crisp snap of those first fall days when the air seems so clean and I notice the crackle of leaves under my feet. I wonder every year if God hasn’t invented some new colors to paint leaves when they turn from green! Would I appreciate the ‘fall’ if I had not done some serious sweating through summer?
It is not a far jump for me to see ‘seasons’ in my life. It is in the difficult ‘winters’ that I seem to walk alone. If God is about seasons, aren’t these winters the time for me to focus and use the solitary time to know that it is only God that is still there for me to rely??!! In the intense fire of ‘summer’ when I feel the conviction of God’s Spirit to lay aside (burn away) things that are not of Him, I grow and become refined and purified by God. Like a piece of metal that has been heated in the flames and pounded on the anvil to the shape and form needed by the Master, when He is done He dips me in the cool water of His encouragement . It is only then that God can use me for the purpose and plan that He has in mind.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend, 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. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)
No matter what ‘season’ I am currently living, may I appreciate it and savor it for the life that it brings in my spirit. If it is a difficult season, may I rest in God’s assurance that He is there with me and that it will not last forever. It never has and it never will. If it is a time of joy and miracles, may I rejoice with thanksgiving and singing! May I also know that this season will not be forever in this world and savor the present and look forward to the eternal spring that God has planned for me.
