Where I live, it will begin to rain soon. This rain is a sign of a cold front that will push the last of summer away. We will make soup. We will pull firewood off the piles we’ve spent months supplying and we will enjoy the warmth of our fireplace. A new season will begin. I’ve been thinking a lot about seasons lately. We expect certain things out of each season. However, I’m noticing that each season presents itself in different, unexpected ways, too.
If I look at our meadows, our forest, our pond – every fall, summer, winter, and spring, year after year – I see they look different. For instance, last spring everything bloomed big. This spring, nearly nothing bloomed. Every season I can expect sameness. I expect that summer will be warm, winter will be cold and plants will lie dormant. Fall will show off some sort of harvest color and spring will bring some amount of rain. But, also, every season is unique.
Every season brings its own unexpected blessings and hardships. Like a spring with just a few blooms, a freezing winter with no snow, a summer with the surprise of huge blackberries. I’m reminded that yes, seasons are cyclical, but God has a unique work for every season. In the unexpected, life has a rhythm, but God adds a special beat. There is a time under heaven for everything.
If you are in a season that feels overly ordinary, mundane or has left you feeling restless for more, remember that God is doing a new thing in the middle of the mundane. He’s doing eternal work right in the midst of the ordinary. Ask Him for eyes to see His work.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
By Trisha Bowman
Christ Fellowship