Changing Seasons
I love autumn, it’s my favourite season. I love the beautiful colours, the smell of bonfires, crunching and kicking through the leaves with the kids or splashing in puddles, the excuse to get out those chunky winter jumpers, the afternoons getting darker and feeling cosy inside. How romantic it sounds!
I’ve been really aware of the changing season this year, particularly in the past week coming away from the coast to the hills where the trees are in full autumn glory. I read something recently that remarked on how ironic it is that the leaves are only so beautiful because they are dying. The leaves have enjoyed the pleasant spring and summer and now must die in order for the cycle of life to start again in the spring. This isn’t a dismal death though; this is going in a blaze of glory! It has made me reflect on how I embrace the cycle of life and death (or pruning in John 15:2) in my walk with Jesus. Ecclesiastes 3 says, “there is a time for everything…a time to be born and a time to die.” So often, I am not best pleased when that pruning time comes; I want to run from it because it is usually painful and hard work. I reluctantly give in to God rather than run towards Him with a willing heart. I kind of wither and shrivel in self-pity rather than blaze with glory and let the beauty of death to self shine through. The thing about the seasons in nature is that you know what’s going to happen. I know that winter will soon follow and it will be cold and sometimes feel desolate but then the warmth of spring will eventually return and the trees will become green again. Life will be restored.
Really, it’s the same in our faith. If we want to have life to the full and be fruitful in our walk then we have to go through seasons of pruning and death. But we have to remember that light and life will return and that the Lord will carry us through those tough times. Trust in Him and embrace whatever season you are in!