“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1
This week, I decided it was finally safe to put the snowblower away. At this point, I certainly hope we don’t see any more of that white stuff for many months! The season has dramatically changed in the last few weeks, and for many of us, it is a most welcome change.
The changes in our weather aren’t the only seasons that we experience in our life. In fact, King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that “for everything there is a season.” I encourage you to read the whole chapter of Ecclesiastes 3 along with this article. Solomon gives many examples of “changing seasons” in that chapter. Here are a few examples: our life in its entirety is but a season in the greater concept of time. There is a planting season and a harvest season, times of sadness and times of laughter, seasons to save and store, and there are times to spend and give.
For many of us, the warmer weather isn’t the only change of season happening right now. Several in our church family are getting married in the next few months. Marriage begins a new season of life! Some of our families are expecting babies, many of you are entering into a time each year that you define as “lake season,” we have graduating seniors in our congregation who are ending this season of life and heading off to college in the fall, and we have college seniors who are graduating and taking jobs – some in Fargo, and some in other places in the country. These are just a few of the ways that our lives change over the course of time, and these kinds of things happen all through life!
At the end of his list of seasons in Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon says that this is the business God has given to mankind and that He has made everything beautiful in its time. You know, these kinds of changes are often wonderful, but there are also changing seasons that are painful and filled with sorrow. Those seasons can last days or weeks, months or even years! One of the main points of the book of Ecclesiastes is that God is in control through all these seasons of life and that He is good to us. It may not always look like it, but God sees things from a different angle, a better and eternal perspective, and He makes everything beautiful in its time!
Because of that, Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 that the best thing for mankind in whatever we do in any season is to be joyful, “do good” as long as we live, and take pleasure in our toil or work, whatever it is. He says that this is God’s gift to man. In other words, He’s in control so enjoy yourselves! Isn’t that kind of a fun thought?!
Sometimes changes in our life cause fear. By nature, we don’t always like change. If that’s you, whether you’re graduating from high school or college, getting married or having a baby, moving or retiring, remember that God is in control, He’s good to you, and He’ll take care of you, so enjoy whatever God has in store for your next season of life!
In Christ,
Pastor Micah