This SEASON Too Shall Pass

Seasons don’t last forever—they were made to END.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:” (Ecclesiastes 3:1 KJV)

I remember spring in Alaska—REAL spring, not calendar spring—when after the seemingly endless months of winter, the hardy little blades of grass would finally push through the vanishing snow crust, and the crocuses and lupine would burst into glorious bloom. Then, the peaks have their “spring clothes” on—patches of black rock and glossy meringue-white snow making the mountains look like a pod of giant orcas, swimming through the pass. When the daytime temps creep up to the upper 40s/low 50s, in the sun it almost feels like you’re walking through lemonade!

But as lovely as the spring IS in Alaska, it also has another name: “breakup.” The Alaskan term for spring comes from the process of ice in the rivers and streams literally “breaking up” after the long, hard winter.  It is that awkward time “between” when winter’s snow cover is giving way and the lovely bloom of summer has not yet begun. The snow loses its clean whiteness and becomes a dirty, slushy mess—alternately freezing and thawing, night and day, as the temperature still tries to figure out on which side of 32 degrees it wants to be. There is nothing lovely about breakup in Alaska—but there is nothing so beautiful as SPRING!

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”  (Genesis 8:22 KJV)

Any season CAN be the worst AND the BEST—each one has its glory and its grit. This is as it SHOULD be.  Seasons were ordained by God to be consistent, though different, and to continue in their changing pattern as long as the earth remains. If you don’t like the season you’re in, just WAIT. It’s going to change. Guaranteed.

There are voices in society claiming that Man is altering earth’s climate. Sea levels are rising, polar ice is melting, and weather patterns are growing more erratic, disrupting the normal cycle of seasons. But in all this cacophony, I hear the voice of God questioning Job:

“Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? …  Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding … Or who shut up the sea with doors and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?”  (Job 38:2-11 KJV)

It may be an inconvenient TRUTH for some, but GOD orchestrates the seasons. No one else. By God’s design, every season MUST have a beginning … and it MUST have an end. No season is delayed, or deleted, nor will it last forever. The earth needs winter’s long repose to prepare for spring’s “awakening”—and no matter how much we love the gentle spring, it must “break up” to make way for the glorious, fruitful summer. We’d like sweet October to last forever, but it is good and right to welcome the first flakes of snow for we KNOW that amid the cold and discomfort of winter … comes Christmas! “Seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, shall not cease …”

Prayer:  Dear LORD, You know us and You see the current “season” of life that we are in. For some of us, it is as sweet as spring. But for others, it is the bitterness of winter. Regardless, we praise YOU in THIS season! Help us to trust You through it, knowing that “this too shall pass.” In Your time. Amen.