For everything there is a season...

As we stand on the cusp of the change of seasons not only from spring to summer but from pandemic to post pandemic, I am reminded of the seasons of our lives.

In the liturgy for Discipleship groups, we say every week that we are committed to meet regularly for this season of our lives, just until it appears that the season has changed, as does the natural order of creation.

Years ago there was a little book we used for small group study called Seasons of Friendship which was a study of the Book of Ruth and the relationship between Naomi, an aged widow, and Ruth, her young daughter-in-law, also a widow. In it the author takes us through their relationship, using the metaphor of the changing seasons to describe the changes in their lives and relationship. The author also uses examples from her own life encouraging the reader to examine her own life, to discover the changing seasons and the cycle of life. As the stories unfold, an understanding of the nature of friendship evolves, so that the reader begins to understand which friends have helped most at different times, and how better to be a friend to others at different stages of their lives.

The season change is often hard, and yet it is essential for the continual rebirth and growth of creation.

So it is with changes in the seasons of our lives.

I invite you to think about where in your lives the seasons have changed and the good that has come out of it. I also invite you to think about your friends…are they summer friends? Winter friends? Fall friends? Spring friends?

Sometimes the seasons are difficult, but as Psalm 72 reminds us, God will prevail, the sun and the moon will always endure, and the next season will always come.

So it is with our journeys.

As the passage in Ecclesiastes says, for everything there is a season.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. Amen.