I love spring and summer. I love spring because it’s a time of rebirth and everything becomes new again. I love the summer for its warmth and beach weather. I live in New York, so the seasons are very distinct, and not like the Caribbean where it feels like it was a perpetual summer.
It’s fall, and things are starting to change. One of my favorite things is to walk through Bryant Park both mornings and evenings. It feels like two different parks at these different times. In the summer, they have a lawn that’s lush and green, and they have movies and people are able to sit out and just hang out. I walked by a week away and they were tearing up the whole lawn. My heart broke and I felt a pang of disappointment.
As I’ve continued to walk through, I’m watching the workers work almost at a feverish rate to get the park ready for the late fall and winter park activities. When they are done, they will have transformed the lush, green park into a winter wonderland with an ice skating rink and many many Christmas stores. It’s amazing to watch.
While I see the transformation of the park as one thing, I can see how that relates to life. Life has many seasons. We may find that we like a particular season or two much better than some. But I’m realizing that all of our seasons are necessary to get us to be who God wants us to be. Sometimes it will take lots of tearing down, and rebuilding so that we have the character that God wants us to have. During these difficult seasons, let us not lose hope that God is indeed working, and He’s like the architect, He has the finished plans, even though we can’t see. When He’s done with His work, we will end up as it ought to be – we just need to trust Him and to trust the process.
Dear Heavenly Father, life has many seasons. Help us to embrace each one and to come to you on how to handle them. Help us not to feel lost as we are transitioning from each season to the next. When we forget, help us to remember that you can see the finished product, when we cannot see it, and we need to trust your certainty.