Seasons

“I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men…” (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11, NIV 1984).

 

Tom and I grew up playing Cowboys and Indians in his big backyard on Belair Drive. I don’t see him very often, but spotted him at the clinic the other day when he was seeing his own doctor. We chatted and I asked him about his singing. I had heard him in a wedding and knew that he could sing well.

I was surprised a few days later when a small package with a CD of Tom’s songs showed up in the mail. This morning I listened to his songs on the way to work. I was amazed that someone with whom I had played Cowboys and Indians could grow up to be so talented. One song in particular spoke to me. It was a song about the seasons of our lives. When Tom sung of autumn, my ears tuned in.

It went something like this:

“In the autumn of my life, the colors change; the leaves fall off; but the best is yet to come.

There still is time to hear Him say, ‘well done, well done.’”  *

 

It is crystal clear to me that there are seasons to my life. I have lived in spring with the energy and passion of a young colt. I have lived in summer with the hard, steady work and joy of building family and practice. I am now in the autumn of my life with the building done, now a time to complete old dreams and to dream new ones of significance. I will one day see the winter.

As Tom’s song says, in every season we have the opportunity to live in such a way that we one day will hear our Master say, “Well done.”

And here, in autumn for me, as in any season for all of us, “The best is yet to come.” The best is always Jesus, no matter what the season of our lives. And, just as He walks beside us, our Lord is always there, ahead, calling us into

“the glorious unfolding” ** of a future with Him.

 

Dear God,

Thank you for the beauty in every season of my life, even in the tough ones. Let me always be looking ahead to you.

Amen

 

* Tom Frazier: “In the Autumn”

** Stephen Curtis Chapman: “The Glorious Unfolding”