For many, autumn is a welcome respite. Gold and orange leaves blanket the world in a comfortable shawl of vibrant color, and cooler temperatures draw us toward a time of quiet contemplation. “Slow down,” nature seems to whisper. Gone are lush green grasses and blossoms ripe with life. A latest season is upon us, and with it, latest opportunities as things of the past drift away. It’s this manner with life, too—seasons come and go in our lives, from nascent childhood to youth to middle age and eventually to our elder years. Ecclesiastes 3 expresses this beautifully, explaining,
“There is a time for every thing, and a season for each activity under the heavens: 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 construct, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to bounce.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 NIV
As God guarantees in Genesis 8:22, “As long because the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and warmth, summer and winter, day and night won’t ever stop.” And as Jesus teaches us in Matthew 24:32-33, in his larger lesson about signs of the tip times,
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, that summer is near. Even so, if you see all this stuff, that it’s near, right on the door.”
Indeed, the changing of seasons is natural, expected, and perfectly normal in God’s perfect design for his world. And so it’s for our lives, too. While sometimes we worry or wonder about God’s timing in the main points of our lives—when will he cause this to occur for me, or when will he answer that prayer?—we are able to look to the constancy of nature to grasp and even learn to understand the vast brilliance of God’s timing.
Here are five ways to embrace God’s timing during Autumn’s changes.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Alex Geerts
