Are you in a changing season? I just settled my goddaughter in at college out of state. She is beginning a new chapter. My own life will change seasons too and focus on some new (and renewed) areas. We all experience these transitions, through loss, growth, and even just the normal milestones of life. I have found it is important to mark and celebrate these changing seasons as we encounter them.
Marking endings can vary widely. It may involve grieving as with the loss of a loved one or moving on from a dream. Lament can be important. An ending season also may be a time of rejoicing as in the completion of a milestone or long-awaited success. We can identify and express gratitude for what God has done through whatever we experience. Remembering His faithfulness and recounting His mercies we can celebrate His goodness to us always.
And with His faithfulness now fresh in our mind, we celebrate the beginning of a new season - the possibilities ahead, the adventure and growth, even the difficult periods of impending loss. And again, we thank God. Because He is faithful and we trust in His care and direction. We don’t know what He will do or where the path lies. But we know His character. We know what He says about Himself in His Word, we know what others have experienced. And we know from personal experience about His prodigious care. We move forward in confidence that He goes before us.
Next never looks like what I thought it would. But His plans are above mine and I rest in His Presence.
“The seasons change and you change, but the Lord abides evermore the same, and the streams of His love are as deep, as broad and as full as ever.” Charles H. Spurgeon
