A Season for Everything

 

Seasons

Summer is here, and it is sweltering in SW Florida. We have the usual humidity, mosquitoes, no-see-ums a.k.a. sand fleas, and threats of daily thunderstorms.  Air conditioners and ceiling fans hum.  The season boasts a slower pace; the snowbirds have gone home. It’s a quieter, leaner time for those who depend on tourists for their livelihood. Businesses call this time the off season.  For locals, it means less traffic, more parking, and a close spot at the beach for your umbrella and chair. That is, if you’re fierce enough to battle heat indexes in the hundreds.

It’s also hurricane and rainy season. Rain clouds have stayed out to the Gulf rather than opening over our little plot of land. School is out, except for those attending summer school. Oh, perish the thought! And tired teachers everywhere are decompressing, relaxing, and checking off items on their to do lists. This time is but a season, like all seasons in life.

Solomon’s Request    

In 2 Chronicles 1:7-12, God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” Solomon asked God for wisdom and knowledge in leading the people. God granted Solomon’s request.

When Solomon did not ask God for wealth or honor, God recognized Solomon’s heart for the people. He bestowed Solomon with prosperity, fame, and knowledge.

Later, King Solomon speaks of seasons of life in Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 when he gives the observation that,“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die.”

A Time to Be Born

Last year, I became a grandma, “Gigi” for the first time. The first moments I laid eyes on his tiny form and held him in my arms are vivid in my mind. My son remarked later, “Mom, you picked up the baby like you do it every day. You didn’t hesitate.” I had to smile.

In those first seconds seeing this new life, it was as if no time had passed since my grown children were babies.  Instinctively, I cradled my grandchild in my arms. All was right in the world in those moments as we celebrated his life and beginning.

A Time to Weep

A year later while vacationing at the beach with our now toddling grandbaby and his mother, we invited my parents to join.  My parents, once avid travelers, are not as mobile as they once were.  Looking out over the Gulf from the wrap around porch, I knew how much they would enjoy a family day on the water.  It was also my mother’s birthday, and I hoped to persuade her to visit us.

Yet when I called, her phone repeatedly went to voicemail. She did not return my calls. I was concerned that depression was rearing its head. This time of year was hard for her, with memories of her own mother’s birthday. Also, my family had recently experienced the death of a nephew after years of illness.  When I finally reached her, my suspicions were confirmed. She was struggling and would not come to the beach.  However, we made plans to meet back at my home that weekend.  There was little that I could do for her but listen, encourage, and surrender my worries about her to God.

Time to Mourn

Presently, I am reading THE CORRESPONDENT.   Sybil, the protagonist in the novel, speaks of being in the winter season of life. Like Sybil, my mother is older, experiencing the loss of loved ones, and enduring some loss of faculties. I know only pieces of my mother’s life. And a life is comprised of many pieces, strategically placed over time by the Creator.  There is much I do not know and may never understand.

A dear friend of mine once spoke about how our lives are but a splotch of paint on a canvas.  We are unable to see the entire painting from our position on earth; however, the Father sees the entire masterpiece, the complete story from beginning to end. How comforting to know that he is with us, Alpha-Omega, beginning and the end. Through times of mourning, rejoicing, planting, harvesting, silence and speaking, through times of war and peace. He is present and all-knowing. Our Everlasting Father is for us. If our Father is for us, what shall we fear?

Time to Plant and Uproot

We need not fear! There is much to live for! In all seasons, the Lord is with us!

Nurture a garden. Grow tomatoes in 5-gallon buckets, and delight in eating them. Place low maintenance plants in windows and enjoy.  Pet a dog or a cat if that is your thing.  Or observe birds, wild rabbits, squirrels, lizards, or other animals in their quiet worlds. It’s fascinating to pause and watch nature at work.

Focus on the Word of God, His promises, His presence, His love. Enjoy loved ones, relationships, and good books. Become aware of your five senses, chase sunshine and moonlight, and look up at the stars. Pause for birdsong, feel a soft breeze on your skin. Eat ripe strawberries, sweet on the tongue, listen to the laughter of a small child, and notice the sensation of cool water on a hot summer day.

Look for the unexpected smile of a stranger and enjoy kind words from a friend. Listen to music that speaks to your heart, giving you “God bumps.” And relish the feeling of lying down after a hard day and rising after a restful sleep.

Bury your toes in the shore and watch colorful coquina dig into handfuls of sand.  Enjoy strawberry ice cream in the summer, and a hot cup of tea. Wiggle your fingers and toes, splash clean water on your face and run your fingers through your hair.

The Holy Spirit beckons us. “Get out of your head.” Pray and sing. Journal and create. Write a letter to someone you can picture smiling when they receive your letter. Call someone and invite them over. Go for coffee or lunch or walk around a shop.

Read good books, go to the library.  Sit on your porch and say hello to your neighbors.  Wave as you drive by.  Tip your waitress well, and your hairstylist, and say please and thank you.  Hold doors for others. Look around and see where there is a need.  Don’t concern yourself with perfection or what others say, and do.  Set your mind to proceed with this day to the best of your ability.

Use the body you have, the resources you have, and the time – right now.  Pray that God leads you to abide. Decide to pursue God fully and be obedient to him.  Stay in the channel, between the markers.  Boundaries are good.

A pastor speaking at a Missions Conference at our church once said, “If you’re still blinking, you’re still alive, and you have something to contribute to the kingdom. What inspiring words!

Stop grumbling and start living.  Stop looking back and live. Read with children. Be silly. Help kids with math. Invest in kids, take an interest.  Be a role model. If more people help, less burden is incurred by all.

Stop spending money on junk and wasting precious time scrolling through social media.  Become an active member of your church, pray for God to show you where there is need, and serve there.

Time to Throw Away

Stop saying I can’t, or it won’t work, or thinking that something is a dumb idea.  Pray and plan for what can be done, what will work, and what will bring joy. Clean out a drawer, give things away.  Negativity breeds hopelessness which leads to despair, sadness, and spiraling.  Break the cycle, change the paradigm, hit refresh. Keep moving forward, even if only a small step at a time.

Don’t spend too much time thinking about others’ opinions of you.  Your value and worth are in Christ alone.  You, beloved, are a child of God.  You are loved and safe in His arms.

Time to Search

Recently, I attended a writing conference in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  As only God could orchestrate, through an app that wasn’t working properly, I met a young woman who was also traveling to the writing conference.  She allowed me to share her ride, and we immediately found much in common.  One evening during worship at the event, my friend called out with hands outstretched, “Yahweh!” “Yahweh!” “Yahweh!” At first, I was taken aback. However, something deep inside of me, the Holy Spirit, I believe, beckoned me to pause.  This young woman, who I had met unexpectedly at the airport bus stop, her arms reaching toward the heavens, was calling out to our LORD, the proper name of God as found in both Genesis and Exodus. “Yahweh!”

Time to Love

My friend understands. Her cry spoke to me, “Yahweh, I seek you! Yahweh, in every season! Yahweh, my LORD. You are with me when I mourn. Yahweh, you are with me when I dance.  Yahweh, you are the only way!”