The Changing Seasons of Life

THE CHANGING SEASONS OF LIFE by Ray Pritchard I received a letter from a friend who detailed some of the challenges facing her family right now. The specifics are personal and private but it can be said that the trials are real and not likely to go away any time soon. She added this PS to her letter: “I was listening to Moody radio and Tony Evans’ wife was talking about things and situations that God allows us to go through. She suggested that we just rest in God and let him take us through ‘our Season.’ This is Fall Season, my favorite time of the year ironic, with all that I am going through but I know I’ll be fine, because God is taking me through the ‘Season’ that he has prepared for me. Praise him.” The seasons of the year are first mentioned in Genesis 1:14 as part of the Creation Week. Psalm 104:19 reminds us that the sun and the moon help us mark the passage of time: “The moon marks off the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.” Birds of the air have a God-given ability to change with the times: “Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration” (Jeremiah 8:7). Daniel confidently proclaimed God’s sovereignty over time and circumstance when he declared, “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them” (Daniel 2:20-21). And Acts 14:17 reminds us that the changing seasons are a gift from above: “He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons.” Lois Evans was right. Just as there are seasons of the year, there are also God-ordained seasons of life. We know the obvious ones–birth, childhood, youth, young adulthood, the middle years, the later years, and the final years. And there is grade school, high school, college and beyond, singleness, marriage, children, the empty nest, grandchildren, and for some there is singleness a second time. There are jobs and careers, new homes and moves to distant places. Often there is success, sometimes there is failure. Friendships formed, nurtured, treasured, and sometimes broken, sometimes restored. There are seasons of health and seasons of sickness, seasons of certainty and seasons of doubt. There are happy days and long, lonely nights. If you live long enough, you will experience most of these and much more. Solomon reminded us of this truth in his famous passage about “a time to be born and a time to die” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). Happy are they who find joy in every season of life. God knows where you are today and he knows where you will be tomorrow.