A Season

Ecclesiastes 3:1

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

            How do you look at time? Do you live in the moment? Carpe Diem?

            Do you live in the past? Remembering better times? That special day when Dad bought you your first bicycle? Or tragedies? When Grandma was gone, and Christmas just wasn't the same anymore?

            Do you live in the future? A land of hopes and dreams? Looking forward to expectations? A new baby? A new car? Empty nesting? Retiring and taking that trip to Alaska? New Zealand?

            How you view time has a dramatic impact on how you view life. Time can be a collection of unrelated moments like a pocket of loose change, or a united stream of minutes like a fine pearl necklace. Is time a race for you? Through rush hour traffic? Getting the kids to school on time? Meeting yet another improbable, or impossible deadline?

            "There is a time for everything." That sounds like a greater implication of balance. Those great questions of man, "Who am I?", "Why am I here?" "What's it all about?" Are they all influenced by time?  Wise men and philosophers have spent their lives trying to understand good and evil. Ying and Yang. God and Satan. How about you? Have you figured it out? What is "a season for every activity under heaven?" Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, the four seasons immediately come to mind. What about seasons of life: Birth, Childhood, Adolescence, Parenting, Late Middle Age, Death? Or seasons of carefree play, school, work and a career, then retirement?

            Have you ever considered a Season of Friendship? As a small child you may have spent a lot of time with your best friend. Then you moved. Or they moved. Or you spent more time with other kids, and the friendship changed. The season changed.

            King Solomon was called the wisest man who ever lived. In fact, the wisest who would ever live. He saw the changing, and the recurring seasons of life. In Ecclesiastes he talked about life, work, time, and God. If the wisest man in the world thought these questions were important maybe they are worth considering.

Prayer: Gracious God, help us to see the times in our lives as you breaking in to communicate with each of us.  Help us to observe your seasons and make them ones of Joy, Humility, Mercy, and Love.  These seasons are eternal for us.  AMEN