“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
The natural seasons of life are inevitable, and their rhythms move sequentially. Spring comes, summer follows, and gives way to autumn, which paves the way for winter’s charade, right before the appearance of another glorious spring. Just as nature moves through seasons, individuals and families move through distinct, often unpredictable, circumstantial seasons of life. These seasons are not merely biological markers (e.g., birth, childhood, adolescence, marriage, aging, and death). These are seasons of relational, emotional, and spiritual passages that deeply impact lives and over time, shape who individuals and families become. Just as we cannot rush or control the natural seasons, we cannot rush or control our lives as they move through circumstantial seasons of growth and tension, fruitfulness, success, triumph, transitions through crises and disruptions, or even dormancy or seeming failure.
Seasons ebb and flow and have advantages and disadvantages; winter does not mean death, and spring does not arrive by accident. Every season carries both gifts and burdens, as well as opportunities and costs. This is indicated in the covenantal decree that “while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.” It is encouraging to know that God works through every season—both the natural seasons and the circumstantial seasons of our lives. Whether in the apprehension of the natural season’s increment weather, the joyful onset of a wedding, welcoming a child to the family, the tedious moments of parenting, grappling with an empty nest as teenagers go off to college, or the angst of sickness and death, what is most important is to know that God meets individuals and families precisely in every season.
Knowing that God meets individuals and families in every season is not only comforting and healing but also freeing. It is freeing to cast all cares on God, to be still and get to know Him even amid chaos, and to be alert to the declaration of His glory—for which we were made. To be still is letting go or releasing control and anxiety, recognizing God’s sovereignty, and trusting in Him.
Even now, as winter and its decay have passed and summer is looming, we move through the freshness and life of spring. Moving through spring is an invitation to embody freedom by simply indulging the senses through the changes in the atmosphere and the new life emerging. It’s an opportunity to feast on the array of colors in the environment as plants bud and flowers bloom; to listen to the chorale of birds darting among the trees. It is a chance to walk the shore of the lake or the sea and feel grains of sand beneath the feet and be reminded that God’s thoughts toward us are precious and “more numerous than the grains of sand.” Spring is the season of restoration and renewal for individuals and families.
Jasmine J. Fraser, Ph.D., is associate professor of Discipleship and Religious Education at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University.