The Seasons

Winter has not turned lose its hold.  I was reminded of this yesterday as I got out the chainsaw, cut some wood from a fallen oak tree, and used the ax to split and make it ready for the wood stove.  A warm fire is a blessing on a late winter chilly night.  And then, today I rolled out the garden tiller and turned the dirt where the garden will be planted.  What precipitated this work was the upcoming Valentine Day.  February 14 is for lovers, but it is also the traditional planting date for red seed potatoes.  So, with winter still upon us, Spring is sending out signals that it is on its way.     

While there are four distinct seasons on the calendar, it is often difficult to tell when one season has completely gone and been replaced by another.  Late freezes have taken out more than one early crop and an early Spring tempts the one eager to plant to plant too early.  In the midst of one season, another shows up blurring the lines between the end of a cold winter and a warm Spring.   Seldom does the changing season obey the suggestions of the calendar on the table.    

All of this speaks to the seasons of our life.  One may seem to end with another beginning, but it is mostly true that the lines between the end of the hard times and the beginning of the better times are blurred.  Actually, the difficult seasons are usually not viewed as past until we finally move far enough away from them to see them in our distant past.  The Word tells us "...there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven..."  (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Good times come and bad times come.  Jesus pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount that none of us have any exemption from this rule of life. In the midst of all the difficult seasons and the better seasons and even in the in between moments when we are not sure whether it is mostly good or bad, we are not alone.  God is with us in all the seasons.