Seasons change, love remains

I love summer. It's my favorite season. Spending my childhood years in Hawaii may have had a big something to do with that, but I think it's a common romance most of us have with the sun and the heat and the breeze and the sea and watermelon! I have always had a hard time during the winter months and now, after this move to Wisconsin in October, I am finding myself more than ever looking to Spring and then Summer because then "I'll be in my happy place." But that isn't right, is it? There is a deep work to be embraced in Winter, just like there is beauty in the breaking of earth as the buds slowly burst onto the scene in Spring. If we rush past the lessons each season teaches to arrive at our favorites, we will never grow the deep, tall & wide growth of a tree that embraces all four.

I've been thinking a lot about the seasons as I've been stuck in what feels like a never ending cold. Standing in our kitchen with my always lukewarm cup of coffee, looking over our family calendar, I’m just blown away that I live with this huge expectation of ‘Summer!’ for nine months out of the year for three short & glorious months of sunshine, BBQs and days spent playing outside. Why? They are gone as soon as they've come and then Autumn shows up and I go back to wishing it was summer for another 9 months. Am I alone in this? I may be but I don't think I am. Here's what's hitting me this morning. Seasons are a wonderful analogy for the work of the heart. They matter.

Solomon said it beautifully in Ecclesiastes 3:11 || To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silent, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

As I leaned into my Father this week and laid my head on his big, invisible-to-me-chest & cried and talked to Him about the many situations in my life & the lives of so many close to me that desperately need His touch, I thought about how UNchanging He is amidst a world that is in constant evolution. We are whirling, spouting, ranting, graceless beings of change, subject to time & gravity, constantly in process and bound to the law of entropy. The earth is changing, the children are changing, the seasons are changing, my body is changing and my heart and yet God, in the center of it all remains unchanged & constant & His name is always God with us.

This brings such immense comfort to my soul. In a world that's always spinning and the next season is always just a few short months away, I feel sometimes like I'm as volatile as a baby bird, soaring on the wings of the wind and a moment later, shot out of the sky and flopping on the ground like a fish out of water, gasping for air. Why? Because, LIFE. Life can be so hard and unpredictable because our world is broken and things are not as they should be. Yet here we are. I believe that it's here in this tension, with all the changes and roller coaster rides of life that we must embrace today and the lessons on the docket for this very minute, because in so doing the environment of our souls cultivates within us the very things the seasons cultivate on the earth: new life. I'm so excited for Spring. Today is my birthday and officially the first day of the Spring Equinox. When I look out my window I see grey skies with little rays of sunshine peaking through and heaps of melting snow. I am tuned in now to the final work of winter giving way to the new life of spring. You will not yet find my pining for summer for there are lessons here in this thawing earth.

I just love how everything in nature points back to God. Even the seasons, even the stars, even breathing. So be encouraged today, I am praying for you. Know that in the comings & goings of life, at the center of it all is the truest Love you’ll ever know and nothing can change His mind about you or separate you from Him. Though the seasons change, His Love remains. Though your circumstances may shift on a minute by minute basis, what is being cultivated in you is your ability to thrive.

((For some bomb worship that will really drive this beauty home, check out United Pursuit’s Simple Gospel album. It's one of my favorites.))

#gospelliving #wenningertribe #memoirsofmotherhood #spiritfood #seasons