Everything a Season

Every season has it's high points and low points.  We live in an area with four seasons, so delightful after living in a country with only two seasons, wet and dry.  The temps varied some, but certainly not with the range we find here.

I peer out the window and catch little splashes of color, my daffodils, crocuses and hyacinths promising warmer days ahead.  The radio is forecasting a mix of rain and snow tonight.  *sigh*  Will the warmer weather ever come, I wonder?  It is hard to be patient.

For everything there is a season, He whispers to me.

And like the seasons, there are periods in my life that, try as I might, I cannot rush through.  Just as the farmer has to wait the days and months for the maturing of the seeds he has sown, so it is with me.  I cannot rush through my maturing.  The seeds endure days of heat, drought, animals and patches of tough soil.  And so must I.  

So must we all, if we are ever to become all that God has intended for us.

(photo above: a path through beans planted on the hillsides near Matagalpa)

This pondering, waiting, enduring season, knowing that time is ticking away and our bodies continue to age, fills me with frustration.  I want to go!  I want to minister!  I want to be there, to be in Nicaragua, living and working.

Godliness with contentment is great gain, He reminds me.

What is that really about? I wonder.

Learning contentment is not an easy lesson.  It can hardly be forced with a snap of the fingers.  Meditating on His word, and being in communion with Him daily, brings us to a place of realization.  That for everything there is a season.  And we cannot rush through the seasons, for there is so much to be gained, and learned, and treasured, in each one.


Ecclesiastes 3


¹ For everything there is a season,

      a time for every activity under heaven.
 ² A time to be born and a time to die.
      A time to plant and a time to harvest.
 ³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
      A time to tear down and a time to build up.
 ⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
      A time to grieve and a time to dance.
 ⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
      A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
 ⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
      A time to keep and a time to throw away.
 ⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
      A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
 ⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
      A time for war and a time for peace.