Changing Seasons
September 1, 2021
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1
What a year 2021 has already been! I think most of us hoped (and prayed!) that with the changing of our calendars from 2020 to 2021 our lives would also change for the better – that the season of distancing would allow for a season of togetherness, that a season of discord would make way for a season of harmony, that the season of sorrow would be replaced by a season of joy.
As the trees exchange their summer green wardrobe for multi-colored patchwork, we are reminded that change is a natural part of life, that God designed the world with change in mind. Change occurs with trial and error, with growth and upheaval, with movement from comfort to discomfort and then back to comfort as the “new” becomes familiar and “normal”.
While things are changing around us, we can sometimes feel like we are wandering lost and alone, in a wilderness not of our making. Take heart, folks, Jesus who is Emmanuel, “God with us”, knows about wandering in a wilderness – alone. For right after his baptism, Jesus was driven out into the wilderness for forty days and nights, after which he was offered the things most people would be swayed by – food, wealth and power, and the chance to see how much you really mean to God by testing God. Jesus conquered these temptations with words from the Bible. We can conquer our fear of change with words from the Bible as well – I have read that some form of the phrase, “Fear not,” appears in the Bible 365 times. That is hope and encouragement for every single day of the year (for Leap Year, it is okay to reread one of the others – the meaning still rings true!)
So as we embark on a new school year, on a season of being asked to serve God in a different role, on new décor, on new ways of doing things; as we embark on yet another season of change, “Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6)
God’s Blessings, form and return it by September 12!
PPS. To read more about Jesus’s time of temptation, look up Matthew 4:1-11.