Seasons change for a reason

Eric Gaudion reflects on finding God’s purpose in every season of life

When we were radio missionaries living in the Seychelles, very near to the Equator, a thousand miles from the nearest landfall and in the inter-tropical convergence zone that produces two monsoons a year, we missed the seasons back home in the UK. High humidity all the year round, and days and nights that were always even in length, led after a while to a wistful longing for blustery conditions, and even the harsh cold of winter.

Whilst many might have been dreaming of soaking in the blue seas of the Indian Ocean, in my daydreams I imagined myself walking into a howling gale with an icicle at the end of my nose! If godliness and contentment are supposed to go together (1 Timothy 6:6) I am not sure which is the easier of the two. Perhaps like the Apostle Paul we need to learn to be content in every situation, wherever God has placed us (Philippians 4:11).

In the United Kingdom autumn is a time of change. The green leaves of spring and summer become a glorious display of browns, crimsons and golds, as nature prepares the trees for the coming winter. The nights draw in, perhaps even the heating gets switched on. Our young folk are back at college or school. All is change as we move through this season. Some changes we welcome, some we regret. Often, for us, the word ‘change’ comes to mean ‘challenge’.

The trees will eventually let go of their autumn leaves, and they will fall to the ground. Change in our lives also means letting go of the things that are past. God has something else in store for us in the present and the future. But this does not mean that we should lose sight of the past. We have much to remember with gratitude, and both happy and painful lessons to learn from it. Nature shows us the way, though, as the seasons move through their annual process. The autumn leaves fall to the ground, but there they both protect and feed the new growth that will be emerging in the spring.

The very name of God reveals His commitment to the time we are in, not just to yesteryear, or to the revival we all long for tomorrow. The name YAHWEH means ‘I am what I am’. Not ‘I was what I was’ or ‘I will be what I will be’, but ‘I am what I am’. He revealed this to Moses, who might have longed for his early prominence and influence to return but who needed to learn that in this new season, however difficult it was for him to adapt and change, God was in charge. He is the God of the present moment, and that is where we meet with Him.

As the leaves fall, we may be so caught up mourning the end of the summer or so preoccupied worrying about the coming winter that we fail to notice how beautiful the autumn days can be! There is purpose in this change of season, and promise contained even in its apparent loss. As I negotiate the complete change that retirement has brought into my life, for instance, I am comforted by the thought that this is just a bend in the road, not the end of the path.

If the changes you are facing present their challenges, hold onto the fact that God is not finished with us yet! There is hope and a future for those who trust in our covenant-keeping God (Jeremiah 29:11).

The Apostle Paul fulfilled some of His most effective ministry whilst chained up in Roman jails. Churches still proclaim the words He wrote under the most appalling and limiting of circumstances. Lives are still being changed daily by the insights given to Him there. The autumn of His life became our spring.

God used Paul’s changing, fading, even falling leaves, to nurture generations of harvest. And ‘Yahweh’ remains the same today.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.