For everything there is a season

Today was a day of getting things done. I vacuumed the upstairs, cleaned bathrooms, put new sheets on my bed, took a nap, made a really good dinner, enjoyed a couple hours with our small group, put Anna to bed, and am now doing my daily writing. I always put off cleaning, but once I've gotten into it everything goes by quickly, which leads me to think, "Why did I wait so long to do this?" It also snowed today. The snow started last night and continued into the early afternoon. It was wet snow that stuck to everything including my dog when I put her out to go to the bathroom. I love having a fluffy dog, but it is a pain when she comes in with tons of snow caked to her paws and underbelly. By the end of the day a lot of the snow had already melted. Each day this week the weather will be warmer than the day before. That's weather in Missouri in March. It makes me think of seasonal changes and how in our culture we do very little to recognize change in seasons. There is a meaning and rhythm to seasons that the majority of people used to observe more closely. Granted that was in a society that was largely agrarian, so your livelihood was based around crops, growing, and seasons. I think it would do us some good to get back to the observance of seasons. The birth and new growth of spring. The green lush of summer. The cool changes and harvest of fall. The quiet, dormant sleep of winter. We all go through seasons whether we recognize them or not. Seasons in our jobs, seasons in our friendship and relationships. Where is God in all that? Guiding the change, orchestrating it, standing by and watching? I think it might a bit of all of them rolled into one. One thing I've learned (or begun to recognize) is that my understand and comprehension of who and what God is is very small and limited. That is comforting in a way and also very mysterious and confusing. I don't need to know what God's plan is down to the finest point....just that there is one, I am a part of it, and He is with me along the way. Last summer we had a small garden in our backyard and I am getting excited in thinking about our garden for this summer. Maybe God is thinking the same thing about me. What changes will be made? How will things be the same this season and how will they be different? I have growing and changing to do (that never stops) and I hope that God is excited in what will come out of that just as I am for my little garden. To shift gears a little, but stay close to the same topic, there is a real closeness of being connected with the ground and being connected with God. There is a spirituality in tending the soil, bringing up plants, caring for them, and benefiting from the harvest. I love the intention and spirituality behind it. I love the rhythm of going out each day to see what has grown, what I need to prune back, and what just isn't doing well. God is there in the earthiness and growth. The act of tending a garden in turn tends to my soul. The section from Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 (NLT) just came to mind:

"For everything there is a season,

a time for every activity under heaven.

2A time to be born and a time to die.

A time to plant and a time to harvest.

3A time to kill and a time to heal.

A time to tear down and a time to build up.

4A time to cry and a time to laugh.

A time to grieve and a time to dance.

5A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.

A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

6A time to search and a time to quit searching.

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

7A time to tear and a time to mend.

A time to be quiet and a time to speak.

8A time to love and a time to hate.

A time for war and a time for peace.

9What do people really get for all their hard work? 10I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. 12So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.13And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God."

In reading that a line jumps out at me, "....even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end." There is a time for everything and instead of worrying about what the scope of God's whole plan is we should enjoy ourselves and enjoy the fruits of our labor. The main fruits of my garden's labor were tomatoes and cucumbers (which were then made into pickles). It was awesome to not have to buy any tomatoes or cucumbers, but instead just get them out of our garden. I'm thankful that we are entering into the season of rebirth and growth. For my garden and for me personally. It will be good to get out and dig in the dirt again soon!

My garden in the early summer last year