There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

Ecclesiastes 31:1

Fall has arrived here in the PNW. Oh, it’s not quite as colorful right now as that picture, but the leaves are changing colors and some have started to fall from the trees. In due time, the beauty of fall will be evidenced all around us.

Fall is a time of shedding off the old, not just leaves from the trees but those things in our personal life: thoughts, feelings, behaviours that may have served us well in a previous season but may hinder our moving forward. Shedding them off is easier said than done.

I am personally moving into a new season. I became a widow six years ago and while healing has taken place, I find myself struggling to embrace a new season, a season of navigating my life as a widow and no longer as a wife. I find it especially trying as it is without definition at the moment. But if there is a season to shed off the old, that means there is a season for new growth – spring, when life begins to sprout up all over the place. Life that may not start out easily recognized but will become more so as it grows.

Perhaps, the season you are in is one of difficulty or trials or loss or sickness. Can I just remind you here that seasons come and seasons go. That is not always comforting, I know that, but none the less, it is true. God knows the ending and beginning of the seasons of our lives and He hasn’t left us to navigate them alone. He is our ever-present help in time of need.

My take on the seasons is just this – fall is a time of shedding off the old, winter is a time of hibernating in a sense (drawing near to God and allowing His healing to prepare us for spring), spring then, is a time of regrowth, new growth and summer, well summer, is a time of celebrating. All serve a purpose. Hopefully, all will encourage us to draw nearer to God in our time of need.

Father, thank You for ordering the seasons and reminding me through them, that they change. Whatever the season I am going through, You are here with me, leading me, comforting me, protecting me and healing me. You have not left me alone and You never will. Please help me to remember this when difficult seasons arise, I ask in Jesus’ name, amen.