Coming up: seasonal changes

Perhaps it’s marked by a picnic, mini vacation, or shopping super sales—the Labor Day weekend is considered the last holiday of the summer season. It signals the start of a school year, a change in wardrobe, and marking calendars with scheduled activities. We look at the end of one season and the beginning of another. Life promises to be different.

Our complaints about an unusually hot summer fade into anticipation of cooler weather, new scents, and the sites of fall colors. The change of seasons is a gift. The expectation of seasons is by God’s design (Genesis 8:20-22). Without orderly seasons, can you imagine the restlessness of not knowing if you would wake up to snow or 90 degrees?

A change of clothing, packing away sandals and making room in our closets for jackets and sweaters. is only one change. Moms may be teary-eyed sending their kindergartener off for the first day of school. Parents unload their college students’ belongings and set up a dorm room but return to empty-nest homes. It may be welcoming traditions of Fall sports. For all, it’s a reminder of aging.

Nature makes changes too; green leaves turn to brilliant shades of orange, yellow, and red before turning brown, drying, and forming a blanket over grass and mulch. The trees seem to be losing something, as bare branches appear, but they are preparing for winter. Could that be an example for us—losing our relaxed summer lifestyle for a different schedule in the fall? We may have lost summer swimming and casual dressing, but now we embrace indoor activity and heartier meals, with aromas coming from our oven, not the outdoor grill. Children were at home and now return to school. We’re adapting to schedules—an opportunity for flexibility and patience.

But realistically, some love the heat of summer and it’s a big change. Others welcome a cozy sweater and making soup in a crockpot. Some enjoy loose schedules, others want regularity and scheduled activities, But changes can be an exciting opportunity to meet new people and explore new activities, grow and learn.

Seasonal changes are orderly gifts wrapped in God’s faithfulness, accompanied by a tag telling us it is an opportunity to anticipate a different beauty.

Fall is more than a season of colorful leaves and crisp air. It’s a season that shows us summer’s end brings a beginning.

What about you? What’s your perspective on seasonal changes? Have you thought about it as an opportunity to anticipate the beauty of growth, learning, and being flexible?

Widows sometimes look at a change of seasons as moving further away from the time they had their spouse with them as well as a season with new and perhaps unfamiliar responsibilities and challenges. 

Mourning Glories: 40 Devotions for Widows is now available and offers encouragement and hope in a new season.