What is your favorite season?
I love fall, especially because I live in a place with blazing summers. Fall is so welcoming and refreshing!
Because of its location, I doubt the Garden of Eden encountered autumn as we know it, but I've often wondered what a shock such a season would have been to Adam and Eve. On the day the serpent enticed this couple to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil - could it have been fall?
Not yet experiencing the seasons of the year, all they may have known are large, lush, green trees. To see leaves change color, fall from limbs, shrivel, and die for the first time - what might they have thought? Unless God revealed it to them, they would have no idea this was God's plan for protecting the tree from winter's harshness and preparing it for blooming anew in the spring.
How scary it must have been to see something so beautiful and precious falling apart! Might their uncertainty about the trees weakened their trust in God - leaving them vulnerable to the serpent's sly deception?
This year will be my 43rd time to watch fall enter and the spring return. Because of my experience, I can appreciate the beauty of fall without panic... I trust this process will rejuvenate and strengthen the trees.
My friends, you too may be in a season that is difficult to grasp. How long will this season be? Will it hurt like this forever?
While I don't the specifics of your season, I have gone through enough seasons of my own to know seasons do come and go, and once the season itself fades - the purpose of it remains for a lifetime.
Father God, I pray for each person reading that may be in a difficult and long season, that You will provide a glimpse of the powerful work You are doing in the midst of it. Give rest when rest is needed, give rejuvenation and strength when it is time to stand tall. Provide comfort and peace because even if we fully trust You have a plan, this time is still so challenging.
I even ask of You the impossible - give them unthinkable JOY today. Knock their socks off with how wide, long, high, and deep Your love is for them. While this may be an incredibly difficult season, I pray that it will, by Your miraculous grace and power, produce blessings upon blessings for a lifetime. Amen
Love you all.
-Halee Wood
Halee –
Thank you for reminding me with your encouraging words that this season too shall pass. And thank you for your prayer which perfectly describes how I am feeling during this beautiful fall season. I love spring and fall but they have certainly been both times of loss and sadness this year. I can’t wait to see what springs up fresh and new from the lives of two beautiful women that I not only loved and lost but their dear, sweet families and friends lost, too.
Love ya –
Love you, too, Marilyn. I’m so grateful for the wonderful relationships you had with these women, but it sure makes saying “goodbye for now” so very difficult. Will continue to lift you and all who loved them in prayer. Thank you for sharing your sentiments about the article.