Seasons

Its a beautiful morning.  The sun is shining brightly across the multi-colored landscape.  Leaves drop like rain as Fall will soon make way for winter.  Coffee is always a welcome start to the morning, but something about the crispness in the air makes it taste that much better.

Seasons.  God's reminder of how things change.  The beautiful fall leaves and the joy of bringing out the long sleeves will soon be replaced by winter, with its brisk, short days, and hopefully a little snow mixed in to delight the heart.  Winter melts into spring with the tiny budding leaves and reemergence of beautiful flowers.  Then summer, with long days made perfect for play time and enjoying the beauty of the world outside.

Our lives change.  Our babies grow up into toddlers then into teens.  Young adults look up one day to realize the are middle agers no longer living a carefree life, but one of responsibility for a family.  As quickly as those days come, so does the empty nest and watching the next generation start the cycle all over again.

Seasons.  God's reminder there will be trials, and out of trials become beauty.   As that cold, dark winter buds into spring it always seems brighter, more joyful.  Even the most beautiful seasons can produce trials...tornadoes, flooding.  Yet even the cold, bleak winter produces moments of joy...like the true beauty of the sun glistening on pure, white snow.

Ecclesiastes 3 talks about seasons.  How they come and go, and how God stays the same.  I couldn't help but put this beautiful creation on my fridge from my son Noah.  It says "Seasons Change.  God stays the same.  He is making every thing I go through into something incredibly beautiful." 

God spoke vividly to my heart with this picture.  A gentle reminder of he is always there.  He is constant, unchanging.  Several times in the past year, I have lifted my hands and said, "God, there has to be an easier way.  Please give me another path." Each time he has answered vividly, "Here is where I want you."  Those days that I just haven't known if I'm strong enough to make it through, he has reminded me that everything we go through becomes something beautiful. 

Craftsmen, artists.  They all work hard.  Starting with an empty canvas, a piece of clay...or for us writers a blank piece of paper, we have the ability to see beyond the rough edges and know there is a masterpiece to come.  So it is with our everyday lives.  Raising kids, the joys and the heartaches, are something incredibly beautiful.  The balance of happy moments and struggles we face daily, they are all part of God's journey.

Here's to the masterpiece we will create and the beautiful things we will experience along the way.