Each year in the spring, we see new green leaves delicately emerge from the branches and green shoots appear in the ground where our flowers will bloom. The seasons move through their cycles with nary a bit of help from humanity, except perhaps to cultivate lovely gardens and grow field crops.
People are not so easily satisfied with the speed of change that occurs naturally in the forests, marshes, and fields. We are always looking for something new. As the summer moves toward fall, I scavenge the garden centers for newer plants and hanging basket blooms to refresh my garden landscapes. When I was in Scotland, I watched a man refresh the garden hillside in Edinburgh.
This made me think about our fascination with what is “new.” Certainly I am happiest in the spring with the fullness bursting forth and the anticipation of the many blooms on my David Austin roses. But I equally enjoy the different parade of blooms that come during August and September.
I think the Lord recognized our restlessness with time. Certainly, as we age, it speeds up. Sometimes I feel as if I’m holding on to a tailwind as the seasons pass so quickly. We even speak about “seasons” of our lives, meaning that a particular season will someday pass and another begin.
“He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings;” (1)
Let’s think about how the Lord refreshes our environment. He does it quietly, steadily and concertedly. It’s planned. Nothing is random.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:” (2)
We are so familiar with this scripture that we can miss the lesson. It is the Lord who creates time, seasons, and controls the age of the earth and its demise. We are to steward His creation. But we cannot change what He started, when He finishes, and when eternity begins.
We don’t have to look for new things. The earth is refreshing itself without our interference. Right now, the birds are molting their summer plumage to make way for their winter coats. They’re finishing up raising their second brood of babies and will soon ready themselves to fly south. The hummingbirds will begin to bulk up for their long-distance flights. Squirrels and chipmunks are storing nuts. Natural life goes on around us regardless of our cultural, political or personal seasons.
The Lord doesn’t have seasons. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. “I am the LORD, and I do not change.” (3)
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
Genesis 8:22 NIV
- Daniel 2:21 ESV
- Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV
- Malachi 3:6 NLT
