Seasons

I feel so blessed to live in a part of the world in which we can experience the richness and variety of the changing seasons.  It may be true to say that due to climate change etc., the seasons don’t seem to be as clearly defined as they used to be, but nevertheless each new season brings its own glories.  What a wonderful creation we can enjoy, if we have eyes to see and hearts to appreciate what God has given!

There are seasons in life generally, too.  I recently visited my Mum on the occasion of her 94th birthday.  She is now very frail, but I can think back to times when she was full of energy, and was a great driving force in the family.  I also have photographs of her as a child.  One photo of Mum which I particularly like is of her sitting on the beach at Scarborough, a place I love and have visited many times over the years.  All this is a reminder that in terms of our age, we travel through various seasons of life.

There is another sense, too, in which life has seasons.  There will be times when everything is going well, when we feel “on top of the world.”  In those seasons, we can feel a real sense of happiness and contentment, and see few clouds in the sky.  On the other hand, there will be seasons when life is really tough, and we seem to have little strength even to put one foot in front of another.  The dark clouds are gathering!

A hymn which addresses the reality of these ups and downs of life is Matt & Beth Redman’s hymn, “Blessed be your name.”  The first verse goes like this:

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful,
Where Your streams of abundance flow,
Blessed be Your name.
Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place,
Though I walk through the wilderness,
Blessed Be Your name.

The key to dealing with the ups and downs of life, the good times and the bad, the easy and the tough times, is to keep our eyes fixed on our heavenly Father, who loves us with an eternal love and had promised that he will never leave us or forsake us.  If our hand is in his, we can journey through every season with confidence.