{This post was originally published in the fall of 2014}
In life there are some subjects that always get talked about. Things like finding balance, how life isn’t fair and the need to slow down. The seasons of life is another one of those topics.
The first eight verses of Ecclesiastes 3 weren’t written just to fill up space. There really are seasons in life.
Calendars state we’re in the season of fall. However this week’s weather, which has been below freezing for the past 36 or so hours, seems to say we’ve skipped fall and headed straight to winter. Our local meteorologists predict a return to fall-like temps as the week goes on, which is a good thing. After all, we can’t skip seasons.
Seasons, both in climate and in life, serve a purpose. Consider the fall and the change of the leaves. As summer draws to an end, leaves go from green to a bright orange or red in color. We “ooh” and “ahh” over the transformation, and even plan trips to visit places where the foliage show is best performed. But, do you know why the leaves turn colors? It is because they are beginning to die. It is the beauty that precedes the leaf’s death for this phase.
Once the leaves die, they fall from the tree. Know what happens if fall gets skipped and the leaves aren’t released before the first snow? Any limbs still bearing leaves will break. Tree limbs need to be free of leaves in order to bear the weight of snow. We had a few snowflakes here this week. Had there been an actual snowfall, broken tree limbs would be everywhere as so many still bear the bright leaves of fall.
We are all guilty at some point of wanting to skip ahead in our lives. We want to bypass the boring days, the hard months, the long nights. We can’t wait to get our driver’s license. Graduate. Go to college. Live in the “real world”. Get married. The baby walks and talks. We yearn for the time when we have reached all our goals and gained fulfillment. But then what? Then comes another season.
Know what happens to the leaves that fall to the ground? They decompose into the ground and become nutrients for the tree, enabling it go flourish and grow healthy leaves the next spring. One season enables the next. There is a season of death to produce a season of life.
We can’t skip seasons. We need each one, regardless of its fruit, to prepare us for the season to come. Even if we’re experiencing a winter life season in the middle of the heat of summer, we need to embrace our season. Let it produce in us our brightest colors, serve its purpose and prepare us for what is next. There is a time for everything…no skipping.