Fall has arrived!  The leaves are starting to change.  The apples are in season.  Starbucks has pumpkin lattes.  What’s not to love?  Autumn is my favorite season of all.  In the south it is our reward for surviving the misery of Summer.  As our cousin in NY says, it’s God’s gift to the North before the hard winter hits.

Fall is beautiful.  God pulls out his full palette of color to paint with in Autumn.  John Bishop said, “Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.”  Of course I would love Autumn just for the pumpkins.  Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin anything.

Summer is my least favorite season.  The humidity is usually 250%, the temperature 300+ and my clothes are always sticky and my hair looks like an unkempt poodle.  Walking outside is like sticking your head in an oven, and when the sun looks at me I turn into a lobster.  Ok, ask me how I really feel about Summer.

Winters are not as bad here in the South, but I have spent a few winters in the North.  My first winter in NY, I was just in a state of shock.  When you walk outside of your house and immediately get a brain freeze, you know it’s cold.  When there’s so much snow that the roofs have to be shoveled so they don’t cave in, you know you’re not below the Mason Dixon any more.

So Fall.  It’s a perfect season.  The weather is cool but not cold.  The sun feels pleasant and not blistering.  The air is light and crisp and not heavy.  The plant life is colorful and not bare.  The ground is covered with crunchy leaves and not slippery ice.

I like spring too, but I LOVE Fall.  I’m an apple cider kind of girl.  I’m ready for a cozy fire.  I’m tired of sandals with exposed toes and bare arms and knee caps.  I want some warm socks, old blue jeans and a flannel shirt.

I sometimes wish all of life was like October.  If it could only be comfortable, cozy, light and crisp.  But so much of life is like the blistering season of summer or the drab, depressing season of winter.  Sometimes in life, the icy winds howl and threaten to take over and sometimes the heat is so intense we think we will waste away.

You know what I mean.  Life is full of seasons.  Some are pleasant, but some are just plain hard.  Some are overwhelming.  Some seem to never end.

But here’s the good news.  Seasons do change.  The tough ones pass.  It’s never winter or summer all the time.  Sometimes it’s spring and all things become new.  Sometimes it’s fall and there’s a reprieve.  Friends, if you’re in a pleasant season, enjoy it.  Rejoice in it.  Don’t rush it.  Be grateful.  Store away the memories.  Remember them when the hard season comes and remind yourself of God’s grace.  If you’re in a hard season, know it will pass.  It won’t always be this way.  The season will change.  But while you are in it, God’s grace will carry you through.

All the seasons are tied together.  You can’t have Spring without Winter.  You can’t have Autumn without Summer.  17th century poet, Anne Bradstreet said, “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” That was right then and it’s right now.  King David, centuries before her said, “One may experience sorrow during the night, but joy arrives in the morning.” – Psalm 30:5  While your long night may be a hard season, joy will arrive for you.  The season will end.  In the meanwhile, embrace the season.  Be thankful for it.  It is the pathway to the joy.  It is the road to the next season in life.  God is with you through each step.  He has not forgotten.  The seasons and times will change.  Daniel 2:21 – “He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.”

Friends, this season will pass.  Until it does, his grace will sustain you.  2 Corinthians 12:9 – “But he said to me, ‘My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.”

The scripture below reminds us that there is a time for everything and God makes ALL things beautiful in it’s time.  That includes YOUR life.  Cheering you on!

Connie

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

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

⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.