In Minnesota, winter is a brutal fact of life. If you love winter, you look forward to the first white crystals floating down aimlessly from the sky, turning the landscape into a frosty fairy scape. If, like me, you could easily live without ever seeing another snowflake, winter is something to be endured, and you hope that this year will be an easy one.
I didn't realize, as a child, that there was another option, that there were places on earth that never saw the temperature drop below 50 degrees. That would have been my idea of paradise, especially on those bone chilling mornings I found myself in a barn of animals that did not seem to feel the same cold as I did.
The only good thing about winter was Christmas. It was magical when it snowed on Christmas Eve, the crisp air frosty in your nostrils as you rushed around getting ready for the most festive holiday of the year. Every time the door opened, the cold would rush in and chill the air with its special holiday scent of promise and hope. The house would be filled with the intoxicating smell of evergreen and presents and special foods like spritz cookies, rosettes and lefse. I can go in my mind to that joyful season just from the scent of a cookie even now, and those memories uplift and delight as I think of them.
Summer, on the other hand, is glorious in Minnesota. The lakes, the rivers, the trees, the grass, the birds singing, the flowers growing, the hot days followed by the crisp evenings - July is everything you could hope for from the warmest season of the year. Now, as then, I live for summer, waiting impatiently for it to return through fall, winter and spring, and reveling in it while it lasts, squeezing every last moment out of it that I possibly can. I savor the summer, holding on to it, resisting change. I want to live with summer full time, because it is the happiest season for me.
In Ecclesiastes 3, we are told there is a season for everything in life. Birth and death, war and peace, scattering and gathering, building up and tearing down. Each happy moment has its turn with the sad and difficult times we experience, and taken together, we are knitted together as the sum of our experiences.
As I have matured, I have realized that life is not as simple as it seemed when I was young. The richness of our life informs our faith, and the seasons of our experience form the building blocks in our relationship with the God who is there in every season. Each season has moments of good and bad, each hard event is counterbalanced by something lovely and longed for, each set back is followed by a leap forward, and even happy moments come with their difficult aspects.
The birth of a child is accompanied by pain and worry. Weddings come with anxiety and stress on many fronts. The joy of anniversaries is filled with memories of the difficulties you have overcome to reach that moment. New opportunities present challenges to overcome.
But at the same time, funerals are filled with warm memories and laughter of happier occasions. Job loss opens us to new opportunities that may be more suited to our skills and interests. Divorce reveals those people in our lives who we can count on and trust to be there in the hardest of times. Illness gives us an opportunity to rest and reflect in the midst of our busy lives. Storms in life are followed by rainbows and renewal, and the joyful moments are to be savored and stored in memory to sustain us in times of difficulty.
Found in each season is its own unique understanding of the life we live. Whether we are talking about the weather or life, we need the entire range of experience to wholly appreciate the fullness of life as God intended. Working through each season of life results in growth and opportunity for something previously unknown and unexpected.
Today I am grateful for each of the seasons of life. As I work my way through each one, I am appreciative of what I have been given, of how my life has come together to put me right where I am supposed to be at any given moment, and how God has planned each event in my life to build my foundation of faith piece by piece. Because of the wonderful fullness of the seasons I have experienced, my faith is sure, my foundation is strong, and my love of my God is ever present, no matter what may be happening in the moment.
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