Hi how are you today? I am well and have had a good but extremely busy week. My husband’s grandson graduated from high school and we attended his graduation and formal. How was your week?
As I was reflecting quickly on the week, I realised that we celebrate some of the seasons in our life but we don’t celebrate others. Often the end of a season can come with sadness and a little bit of pain. I am sure none of the high schoolers graduating feel this but maybe the parents do.
The end of one season always means the start of a next season. Winter transfers to spring, spring to summer, summer to autumn then autumn to winter and the seasons start again.
But that’s not what happens in our lives. The end of each season doesn’t only mean a next season but a stepping up. God wants growth to be a constant in our lives and in order to grow there must be next seasons.
My question is do we even celebrate the end of the last season or even do we recognise that the last season has ended? Too often we are looking for the bright shiny lights of the next season instead of reflecting and celebrating the last season.
Ecclesiastes chapter 3 talks about seasons. It lists 14 different seasons that we often walk through in our lives. Verses 1 to 8 states:
There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
2-8 A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.
These verses aren’t only talking literally but also spiritual and soul seasons of our lives. Which one do you resonate with the most?
For me, it is a time to hold on and a time to let go. This can apply to parenting, to our employment, to new cities or new churches where God wants to take us etc. For me, I don’t enjoy change but prefer to hold onto what I already know. I know I can’t live like this so maybe one way to let go is to celebrate my old season before I launch into the new. The reason we do this is because there is a finite line between old and next.
In Hebrews 12: 1 to 3 in the Message Bible, part of it states:
Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God
Jesus always knew where He was headed. He embraced each new season and had finite lines between them. When He started His ministry, He was baptised and led into the wilderness. When He ended His ministry on earth, He went to the cross and was resurrected. However, before He went to the cross, He celebrated Passover. It was the last time that a lamb would be sacrificed before Jesus, the lamb of God was sacrificed once and for all time. No more Passovers need to happen, remembrance in communion takes its place. Jesus celebrated the end of Passover with His disciples. It is the only one recorded in the Bible that Jesus attended although He would have been attending them all His life.
This week, what do you need to celebrate then move forward. Reflect on this. Maybe you should have celebrated something and didn’t. It is not too late! We all have a next season; let’s celebrate before moving into it.
Bless you heaps and keep living the life God intended for you.
Karen
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