Seasons

I was going through my music library today. I love music and I love listening to music to help me through the days that I have a hard time dealing what life is giving me. Today hasn't been a good day, Bobby is being awful and I just am missing home again. I go through my days where all I want is to be back home where I feel more comfortable. Anyways, I find that the best people to listen to that just uplift me is Nichole Nordeman, Jeremy Camp, Natalie Grant and Nichole C. Mullen. I could go on and on.

Anyways, today I found my mp3 fild of Nichole Nordeman's cd This Mystery. It has a lot of good amazing songs on there that I just love and still know by heart, but one song that just really got to me today was her song, "Every Season". I put my headphones on and put it on repeat and just listened to it, bawling. I forgot how great such a song it is. The song is about seeing God through every season change, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. I don't know why, but today I really needed to hear this song.

I feel like this song is more about the just the change of the seasons but it's about us. We all go through seasons in our lives. Ecclesiates 3:1 states, "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven." Our lives are constantly changing and God is allowing us to go through such seasons so that we can be molded. I am going to post the lyrics and just tell you what each say to me.

Every evening sky, an invitation
To trace the patterned stars
And early in July, a celebration
For freedom that is ours
And I notice You
In children’s games
In those who watch them from the shade
Every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder
You are summer

And even when the trees have just surrendered
To the harvest time
Forfeiting their leaves in late September
And sending us inside
Still I notice You when change begins
And I am braced for colder winds
I will offer thanks for what has been and was to come
You are autumn

And everything in time and under heaven
Finally falls asleep
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation
Shivers underneath
And still I notice you
When branches crack
And in my breath on frosted glass
Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter
You are winter

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced
Teaching us to breathe
What was frozen through is newly purposed
Turning all things green
So it is with You
And how You make me new
With every season’s change
And so it will be
As You are re-creating me
Summer, autumn, winter, spring

The first verse talks about summer and the joys of summer. To me this is talking about the best times in our lives. We are completely happy, our responsibilities have taken a break and we are relaxing. We feel youthful, we feel joyful and we are just plain happy. To us, there could be nothing wrong and that life couldn't be more perfect. Everything is falling into place and we tend to forget what we were just through. We don't like to think about it just as kids don't like to think about school during summer vacation.

The second verse goes on and describes Autumn. I personally love this season, the leaves are changing and the colors are so beautiful. Yet, Autumn is also when things are slowly dying and slowly changing. It's a time that we are thankful for what God has given us. We go through this thankful time where we are just amazed how God has provided and what God has done. Autumn to us is the time that we start seeing the joy drop off and we can feel the slow creep of the cold coming in, but we are still thankful for the family and friends that we have. Things are starting to fall apart and we are trying to keep it together.

After Autumn, comes the hardest season in life, winter. Winter is the time in our lives where all the warmth and joy is gone and we are "cold" inside. Everything is dying and there's really nothing left. We remember what used to be and try to focus on what is to come. We can't remember what it was like to be happy and we are just trying to catch the littlest glimpse of hope and joy. We are leaning on God and family during this time and we are trying to keep our head above the water just to make it.

Don't be disheartened. God never gives you more than you can handle and He will not leave you alone. He gives you your spring time. You feel rebirthed, renewed and refreshed. You are beginning to see the purpose of what you were going through. You are a new person and stronger than you were ever before. You grew during the last season and you are forever a new person. You feel completely different and you are starting to remember what happiness looked like. You start to smile at the littlest things and you start to see the beauty to your suffering. You begin to realize why you endured it and you begin to understand everything.

One thing that each season has in common, is that you are not alone in any of this, even in the joy. God, family, and friends are here for you every step of the way. You do not endure any of it by yourself and you will never. Someone is always there for you to laugh with you, cry with you, rejoice with you, pick you up when you fall etc. You can't give up when you are in Winter. You have to keep your eyes on Spring and Summer. You can't give up when you start to enter Autumn. God will never leave you no matter what. He is always walking in when everyone else is walking out. He made each season and He will be there for every season.