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Where is God when things are changing all around you?

I normally welcome the seasons of the year with open arms. I love watching the dark hours dwindle and as spring is ushered in. I enjoy counting down the days till summer, when both students and teachers get a much-needed break from academic stress and deadlines. When fall approaches boldly with an explosion of color, I love it. Watching the leaves turn colors and fall to the lawns, the streets, and onto whatever and whomever stands in between doesn’t get old for me. I didn’t get to experience the changing seasons when I lived in the desert of Phoenix, Arizona. We generally had one season: hot!

Sometimes, though, other seasons of life are not as beautiful or predictable. When a love grows cold or even lukewarm or a time of plenty turns into a time of lack, it takes extra reminding that God is the same today as he was yesterday when things were more comfortable. I’ve watched one of my sons graduate and I’ll watch another two of them cross the stage next year, one in college and the other in high school. Seasons are changing all around me, and I know I’m not the only one. Maybe your time at a job you once loved is coming to an end or your honeymoon period is slowing dying down and you’re experience all the challenges of learning to live with another person or within a culture that is polar opposite of you.

Earlier in the year, I attempted to encourage you with the words of Ecclesiastes:

“For everything there is a time, and a season for every activity under the sun.” (3:1)

That scripture remains true, even when the season is not one we enjoy or is not what we would have chosen for ourselves. It’s in times like those that I have to encourage myself with the truth of scripture:

Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time (or season) we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up. (Gal 6:9)

Recently a friend reminded a group of us that fall can be a time of losing, of shedding things. If that’s where you find yourself. Please know that this message is my prayer of encouragement for you. God sees you and he feels your feelings. He will draw near to you if you will draw near to Him (James 4:8).

As we approach a time of thankfulness and of celebrating the birth of the Messiah, may you feel his steadfast love in this and every season.