"To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
Life has its seasons. Spring is the beginning – babyhood, childhood, adolescence. Our hands must be held to help us walk with more mature steps. Summer follows – our twenties and thirties. Then comes middle age, a less welcome friend – autumn has arrived. Lastly comes the white, white world of winter – our old age accompanies us home. Each season has its special blessings and problems.
Spring is fun and free, new and exciting. It is bright and fresh and makes us feel a little crazy. We are tempted to do rash things, to experiment, and to live in fast time.
Summer sees us consolidate. Our mistakes lend us help in making better choices. We learn who we are and what we can do.
Autumn finds us reflecting on summer and occasionally wishing for spring. The colors of our character, formed in spring and summer, fall like autumn leaves across the pathways of the people whom we love. Occasionally, a chill wind blows and we mourn better days, when our branches were prettier and didn’t threaten to break off in the storm.
Then winter closes in. Sometimes, old age is warm, and cozy; we don’t want to go outside. We wrap our years around us like a warm old sweater and feel comfortable at last. At other times, we venture outside and romp like two-year-olds in the snow.
There is a “time for every purpose under heaven.” Blessed are those of us who see our four seasons through!
