Seasons

Trees fascinate me in their nature and essence.  They are beautiful to look at and have such an incredible story to tell.  Trees provide the environment and its people with great oxygenation and they stand strong with deeply embedded roots.  Trees beautifully model for us what it means to withhold and persist through seasons. 

The Summertime is my favorite!  The leaves are green and vibrant, representing life, fruition, glory at it’s best.  The greenery gives off such a refreshing essence that it’s hard to overlook. 

Summer 2024

Then comes the Fall, what a wonderful change in color.  As breathtaking as the green leaves are, the brown, orange, red, and yellow shades of leaves provide such a shift in scenery.  Marking a transitional period for the tree, preparing for a great fall.  The ground will eventually welcome a brand-new showering, an embrace, like the cycle of life, in which we shall all return to dust.  Those beautiful leaves with all their splendor, return to their place of origin, the ground.

Fall 2024

Following fall is Winter.  Trees are now bare representing a time of reflection and simply being.  The irony is that as vulnerable and fragile as the branches may appear, they continue to hold and remain, as the Lord wills.  Recently, I read in a book that the reason leaves fall in the fall time is in preparation for the winter snow.  As branches were not designed to sustain both the weight of leaves and snow at the same time.  Therefore, for the branches to be able to sustain the snow, their leaves must fall! 

Winter 2023

Following winter is Spring, bringing with it wonderful rain, pouring rain on a ground that desperately needs to be poured into to help the seeds grow!  See, the ground is full of seed and promise but without the proper amount of watering, at the right pace, it’s fruits + harvest cannot come. 

Spring 2023

And back to summer again which confirms the necessity and beauty of every season.  Summer reminds us once again that we will sprout, that if the branches remained connected to the vine, we will see fruit again!  New leaves represent new life, new beginnings, new strength, a fresh re-start. 

Let’s note:

• At every stage, in every season, a tree remains a tree.  Many times, we are fascinated by the greenery, we want to be able to enjoy a fully grown, blossoming green tree, vibrant with abundant leaves, in full essence.  But the tree is not any less of a tree as it’s leaves fall or when it’s bare, appearing weak and empty.  Every season has a reason, a purpose for which they occur. 

  There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot.  Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

• Getting in the way of the process only deceives us into believing that we have control over what we really don’t.  This invokes feelings of frustration, sadness, anxiety, and even anger, as we notice our failed attempts/efforts to return to the way it was.  Accepting the grief associated with every changing season while embracing the newness that is to come will help us cope well. Otherwise we only stand in the way of healing and restoration of our core. 

• The Bible tells us that God is the vine, we are the branches, and that everything in us that does not produce good fruit will eventually be cut off!  The Word of God also reminds us that apart from God, the vine, we cannot do anything.  Choosing to remain in Him as he rids us of what no longer serves a purpose in our lives for our upcoming season is practicing kindness and wisdom to our heart.

Question for self-reflection:

• What season, hypothetically speaking, are you currently in?