Guest Post by Emma Hall

I’ve been thinking about seasons a lot lately, about how there is continual change and rhythm in nature. I think these thoughts have been brought about by the mere fact that I live in a place that really has four seasons. That and because I think fall is the clearest season of all. Fall is the season that happens overnight while you’re sleeping. You go to sleep in green and wake up in a magnificent array of orange and yellow and red. While a midnight snow can wake you up with its brilliant white, snow’s radical fall can always melt, but the yellows and oranges of the leaves don’t return to green for a very long time.

The thing about seasons and rhythm and nature’s way of allowing it to happen is what gets me. I’ve never seen a tree turn to God and ask to remain green for a bit longer. I’ve never heard a tree moan and complain about the loss of its foliage and color. Nature has a way of allowing the seasons to happen, and she always adjusts; bears eat and prepare for sleep and the chickadees know to eat more – gaining weight will keep them warm throughout the colder days and nights. The acorns fall and the squirrels know what to do (the trees share without a selfish thought).  The crops change and the apples come in, the pumpkins grow and the ground adjusts accordingly.

I want that rhythm. I want to know and understand that change is inevitable, necessary, and good. It may not always feel good (the cold always takes time to get used to), but without all of the seasons, we miss out on so much of God’s creativity. I want to be in rhythm with God’s seasons in my life; I don’t want to miss out on His creativity.

~Emma

For Reflection . . .

Ecclesiastes 3:11a 
“He has made everything beautiful in its time . . .”

“But change doesn’t feel scary anymore, not like it used to. It seems like I no longer view life as a slipping away but a slipping toward.” 
Jennifer Dukes Lee