A little over a week ago marked the first day of autumn and the official changing of the seasons. I gleefully switched the sign on my front porch that says “Hey Friends!” To “Hello Fall” and hung a leafy fall wreath on my door.
There’s something about this time of year that feels so refreshing. I don’t know if it’s the new school year finally settling into a rhythm, or the color of the deep blue sky against the crimson and gold leaves, or the cool breeze mixed with the warm sun on my face. There’s just a momentum to it that seems to keep propelling us forward. Like there are new possibilities just around the corner.
With every season, we can see a renewing of God’s faithfulness. Whether in the radiant sunbeams of summertime, the brilliant colors of the leaves in autumn; the still, serene blanket of snow in winter; or the promise of new life emerging with the flowers in spring–they all point to God’s sovereignty and abundant love.
Turning a page in the calendar is one thing, but sometimes we find ourselves facing an entirely new or challenging season of life, and that doesn’t always feel as easy. Things like a new job, kids moving out of the house (or back in), dealing with health issues, or grief and loss, can usher in feelings of anxiety, fear, or stress, making it hard to discern the best way forward.
The book of Ecclesiastes describes life as “hevel” when life gets like that. Our modern translation calls it “meaningless” but that actually misses the mark. The word literally means “smoke or vapor” and the author of the book is using it as a metaphor of how life is like smoke or vapor. Temporary and fleeting, and at times, unclear, it can feel impossible to grasp and hard to see through. It can seem like just when things take one shape, everything changes and looks completely different. We lose any illusion of control we once had, and that can be painful.
But it’s one of the best-worst things that can happen to us because it calls us to a posture of total surrender before God. It can also help us rediscover the many simple gifts that God provides every day—if we have eyes to see them.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
Ecclesiastes 3:2
When we live in a posture of trusting in God, we will see that in each season of life, there are gifts of God. The enjoyment of simple good things in life, like friendship, family, a good meal, or a sunny day. Little bits of heaven breaking into our life here on earth. We begin to trust and see that in each season, even the challenging ones, God’s love and faithfulness are there.
There have been many circumstances throughout my life that have been unexpected blessings and plenty where nothing was in my control and all I could do was cry out to God. But every time I turned my eyes to the Lord, He helped me to stop striving to control my plans and helped me submit instead to His.
God’s steadfast love shifted my focus from what I thought things should look like, to the glorious hope of what they could be in the masterful hands of my loving Creator. I could be confident that God’s faithfulness in the past would see me through anything I might be facing now. And I could rest in the knowledge that while my circumstances might have changed, who I am in Christ did not. My identity remained secure as God’s daughter, chosen and loved.
We can’t always see it in the moment, but God is present and working on our behalf because He loves us so very much. When we hurt, He is faithful to comfort us. When we are discouraged, He is faithful to cheer us on. When we pray, He is faithful to listen and meet us in our need. He does what He says He will do. He can’t help it. His goodness and faithfulness are part of His character. You can trust and rely on Him in every way.
Seasons will inevitably change and sometimes it can seem like we are looking through a cloud of smoke trying to make out a clear path. But God remains constant, a firm foundation beneath our feet that allows us to continue forward, trusting Him to guide us and provide for us. We can be confident that even when new seasons are unexpected, God has planned ahead for us in every detail. When our lives are built on Christ, we can have faith that is unshakable in any season because we are loved by an Unshakable God.
