Whenever the end of August looms on the horizon, I start to notice the change in season.
The darkness of the evenings is edging ever earlier. The hedges are ripe with blackberries, ready to be picked. The fields are being harvested. The final few music festivals have been and gone. New school uniforms are being purchased, along with shiny made-to-measure shoes. And all sorts of activities, momentarily on pause, seem to suddenly pick up pace again.
It’s the same with life.
Over the course of a few weeks, months, or even years, as we look around, we start to notice the change in our life’s season.
This has been uppermost in my mind of late, as recent weeks have firmly planted me in the life season of ‘care for aging parents’ – something that’s been coming for a few years, but is currently dominating much of my time and headspace.
It reminds me of autumn gradually giving way to winter, followed by a few hard frosts and a large fall of snow, so that you know, beyond knowing, that winter has arrived.
***
God designed creation to move naturally through seasons. In the northern hemisphere, we typically have the four seasons of winter, spring, summer and autumn. For people who live nearer the equator, their nations tend to have just two seasons – rainy and dry.
God also designed life to be lived naturally through different seasons.
As Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”
It means that all the seasons of life are intentional. God has orchestrated them, and he has reasons for us to go through them.
Sometimes we can sense that he is deepening our faith, or shaping our character, or refining our heart, or weeding out sin, or teaching us an important life lesson. Other times we won’t really understand what a particular season has been about, until sufficient time has passed, so that we can look back with the benefit of hindsight.
But it also means that no season of life will last forever. Whichever season we are in at the moment, it has had a beginning and it will have an end. Just as we leave behind previous seasons when their times are over, so we need to embrace new and different seasons when they follow in God’s ordained timing.
The seasons of life ebb and flow like the tide.
There will always be mountain tops and valley bottoms, joy and sadness, success and failure, hope and despair, love and hatred, trust and fear, light and darkness, health and sickness, life and death, peace and war, stability and transition …
The key is to keep God at the centre. He alone can help us make sense of the season we are in. When we invite him in, meaning will emerge.
***
In my current season, I’ve been trying to process my many different emotions, while practising what I preach – by always looking for ‘light through the cracks’, noting the many ways in which I can see God at work.
But one thing I’m observing is this: “Getting old isn’t for the faint of heart.” It’s a saying attributed to the late American movie star, Mae West, who lived into her late eighties.
For lots of reasons, this is a tough season; arguably one of my toughest ones yet – and although I know, sadly, how it will end, I don’t know when it will end.
All I know is that it will, at some future point, come to an end. It isn’t going to be like this forever.
And perhaps, when that time comes, a new ‘light through the cracks’ story will have emerged, which might be worthy of sharing.
Only God knows.
***
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”
What season of life do you feel you are in at the moment, or what seasons are you transitioning between? What sort of emotions is it evoking for you?
How easy do you find it to keep God central to the season you’re living through, and how is he helping you identify its purpose? What are you learning from it?
As ever, constructive comments are welcome below.
(Please note: This is my ‘thought for the month’ reflection for August. You can find all my ‘thought for the month’ reflections here.)
Photo from Adrien Robert via Unsplash.
8 Comments
Thank you Joanna. My August has also not gone to plan, but for different reasons to yours. I have already passed through the season you are facing, and whilst it is hard God will be in it all and will give strength and grace for each day. Be assured you are being held in His presence every day.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Elizabeth. I’m sorry to hear your August hasn’t gone to plan, but thank you for your reassurance about this season I’m in.
Thank you Jo for this reflection. Firstly, I am so sorry to hear that you are in the eye of such challenging circumstances. I really hope you are able to find your own moments of rest and peace. Secondly, thank you – I needed this as August didn’t quite deliver what we hoped. Circumstances are different but we are in a transitioning season, which was very smooth to begin with, so I am encouraged by your reflection – thank you.
I’m so pleased to hear that this ‘thought for the month’ has resonated with you, Michelle. Thanks for letting me know. I’m sorry, though, to hear that you’re facing challenges in a season of transition; I hope and pray that they soon start to ease.
Thank you for sharing this Joanna. Praying that He will be true to His character and give you grace for this season, and that there will be lights through the cracks experiences for all of you.
Thank you Joy. “Amen” to God giving me grace for this season – and to seeing lots of ‘light through the cracks’ moments in the midst of it.
On holiday in New York in the Museum of Modern Art I was struck by four paintings of the seasons by Alex Katz. Winter looks very stark. But it doesn’t last forever. Worth googling them I think!
Thanks Penny! I’ll have to see if I can find the four paintings you’ve mentioned. At least, with seasons, they have a start and and an end; none of them last forever.