seasons

Last year, around this time I was thinking of chapters; this year, it's seasons. We're in the middle of summer, but it feels like autumn here, in Washington. Next month, I'll see spring in New Zealand, followed by another summer in Antarctica that feels like winter.

Seasons in life get mixed up, too. There's a passage (and a song) that have been important to me lately. It goes like this (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 11):

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace...
He has made everything beautiful in his time.

Normally, I think of the song, Turn, Turn, Turn, and read over these Ecclesiastical verses and think, "Wow! What a great poem."

This summer I have reflected on these lines further. They have become a part of my life's story. I have had these times; if not literally, then figuratively in my life. For good, or bad, each "time," or each season, is eternally a part of my life, or year on this earth.

What I like about this passage is it's down-to-earth, human approach to our sinful world under God's rule. There is no presupposition of perfection. We can't even hope or expect a perfect world. There are certainly good activities; love, peace, laugh, dance...but attached, there is an expectation of bad things happening, too; war, hate, tear down, mourn. On this earth, there are still good and evil.

Around Western Washington, there is a strong contingency of uber-liberal democrats who hold up signs to "Impeach Bush" or "Stop the War." You may disagree, or agree with their sentiments, but there will never be complete peace and honest goodness in this world. As hard as they try, as many leaders as they knock down, there will still be tension, anger, and perhaps, a different sort of war to deal with; there is a time and a season for everything. As hard as that is to understand, it means there is a time for war; there will also be times of peace; as just as we are all born, we will all die.

There's a hope, too. It's at the end; in fact, it's tucked under a few verses: "He has made everything beautiful in his time." God's agenda is not ours. He redeemed the world, by sending Christ to cover all the bad stuff and carry that burden. And, when he comes again, in his time, everything will be as it should. We will then see endless beauty.

We see this redemptive theme throughout the world; the proverbial "happy ending." It's in movies, relationships, in life cycles, and in the art of patience. That's how God will close this story of the world; with a beautiful ending.

In the meantime, we can hope to see glimpses of that beauty by appreciating the season we are in; realizing that each individual season is not self-defining, but it's the entire calendar that puts together the person; for better times or worse times.

I do wish God had the same calendar as me. Although, I would have been a married interior decorator, with two children by now, and missed out on this adventure that is my life.