A Change in the Seasons
The summer is almost over! Soon it will be September, and we will be saying goodbye to all this heat and summer fun. Fall will begin to set in and with it will come the cooler days and eventually the rain. Trees will start to lose their leaves in preparation for winter.
I was thinking about trees losing their leaves in the context of someone who didn’t know that trees did that. "Is the tree dying? Why did all that fall off? Will it be able to survive without all those leaves?" In actuality the trees losing their leaves is a system for survival. As the ground freezes, it acts as a barrier for surface water getting to the root system. By shedding their leaves, trees spend less energy in the winter, conserve moisture within the trunk keeping it from drying out, and allow winter storm winds to blow through the branches putting less strain on the tree, making it less likely it will be ripped from the ground. But for someone who didn’t know that, the trees losing their leaves could be seen as a serious problem.
So why all this tree talk? Well it's similar to the way that we go through seasons in our life. The very famous verses out of Ecclesiastes (3:1-8) tells us that there are times for just about everything to happen to us in our lives. And sometimes what's happening can seem very destructive, as with the trees losing their leaves. Without having a complete picture, we think about our current circumstances wondering what the heck is going on. Why did I lose that job? Why did that person get sick? Why didn’t these plans work out? Why, why, why? Often times these happen because of the very nature of the world we live in. Or it could be God stepping in to put us through a crucible where we’ll come out of the other side more refined. Either way there are various promises in scriptures that are meant to help get us through times that we don’t necessarily understand.
In the book of Romans, Paul writes to the Roman church, introduces himself and lays out what becomes one of the most important explanations of Christian doctrine. In chapter 8 verses 18- 39, Paul explains we will have suffering in this life but will have glory in the next. In the middle of this block of text you come upon one of the most, if not the most, used verse to comfort people in what seem like terrible seasons: Romans 8:28..."And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." The Greek word that’s used here for good is “ag-ath-os” which can be translated as “intrinsically good, good in nature, good whether it be seen to be so or not."
The bottom line is God uses seasons that are a struggle for us for good whether we understand why those things are happening or not. And in the end, do we need to understand it for the Creator of the universe to be on the throne and orchestrating the cosmos for our good? Nope.
So whether or not you’re in a frustrating season or things are going really well, when the trees start to lose their leaves this year, remember to thank God that He is there for you even though you don’t understand the circumstances you’re currently in. Continue to walk on knowing that God is doing something good for you whether you understand it or not.