RENEW. Day 21 of Lent. For everything there is a season.
When I see a Robin in late winter I know Spring is coming.
And when the Bradford Pear Trees sprout like winter snow, I know it is here. But it is this one winter tree I have learned to watch. With fall long past, it is the one that has that cluster of dead leaves still hanging on even after Winter’s worst was heavy upon its branches. Yet still a few leaves cling fast, so misplaced, stoically strong. So stubbornly stuck that Life itself must push the dead from the branch.
Then the tree is renewed.
Spiritual renewal comes often that way. We hold on to the comfortable. We’re begrudging creatures. Stubbornly dead. Stuck. The end of some seasons like death and the grief often so hard that we are sometimes found in Winter still clinging to Fall. And we’ve refused to let go. To take our rest. To be bare and quiet and silent and ready. To listen through the winter, looking for the Robin. The first sign, thought, inclination that something new is coming soon. Life about to spring forth from what feels so dead. Even when we are still holding on to the last remains of a past season, God renews us. New life pushes out the dead. The birth of tiny buds of green forces old leaves to finally fall. God is so faithful in His transformation process.
“For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
All of life relates to seasons. And Solomon tells us “for everything there is a season”-Everything. Every. Thing. In my circle of friends I have retired widows and young single career women. I know empty nesters adjusting to the new quiet and newlyweds praying for babies. Friends recovering from divorce and others fighting disease. All different seasons. And God has made everything beautiful in its time.
Whatever season you are in, be, there. Yearning for what’s next or mourning what’s in the past causes us to shift our focus off the spiritual call to Abide. We’re like those dead leaves out of season. We’re distracted and discontent. We’re afraid. All things we’re called not to be in Christ. Yes some seasons are extremely difficult. The wait of winter is hard and its storms can be fierce but its pure peace can be beyond understanding. The heat of summer is exhausting, the mosquitoes annoying but the color and the bounty, glory. Fall is bursting full with color and the harvest of activity just as spring is sprouting with fresh new growth and possibilities but both carry with them the side effects of headaches and runny noses from the allergens. Each season has its glory and its groans and if our lives were one continuous season we wouldn’t have the changes we need to transform us.
We are born and then we die. Life so fragile and fleeting. We are back to remembering we are DUST. And knowing that truth helps us to live intentionally and make the most of each day.
So embrace whatever season you are in now. Today. By abiding in Christ. Be you right there, in Christ, with Christ as He works in you and through you. Don’t long for another season. The days may be long, but the years seem so short. So be, there, abide, with Him.
He makes everything beautiful in its time.
4jlkelly 