It’s September and thus, a new season. Soon the leaves will display their beautiful colors, the days will get shorter, and the aroma of fall spices and desserts will fill our lives.
The change of seasons in the earth can be exciting and while some of us like all of them and some of us have a favorite and least favorite season, it is almost indisputable that the fall season is one of the most beautiful of the Lord’s creation. And of course, throughout our lives, there are seasons – some wonderful, some sorrowful, some challenging. There are seasons of plenty and seasons of lack, seasons of progress and seasons of setback. As sure as the fact that our seasons will change, another fact is that our heavenly Father will be with us through all of them and His love and comfort will not change.
Even the seasonal changes in nature prove God’s steadfastness and consistency. Genesis 8:22 says, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us, ”To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven . . .” It goes on to mention numerous opposing activities of joy and sorrow like birth and death, laughing and weeping and so on. It is to be expected that we will experience good and bad times in life and naturally it is easy and preferred to experience good but the Lord wants us to hold on to our faith in the bad times also trusting that He will bring us through. Jesus promised us in John 16: 33, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
James 1:17-19 tells us, ”Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” James writes that God gave us birth by the Word of truth. As Christians we have priority above all the other creatures that He created – we are the firstfruits. As such, we hold a special place in His heart and can trust that He will always be certain even in uncertain seasons.
As we welcome fall and the different seasons in our lives, remember that He is in control and working out every situation for our good. We can look forward to the next chapter in our story.