One of these upcoming days or weeks, you will walk outside in the morning and you will notice: fall is in the air. Summer is still holding on by its teeth, but the first signs are there that autumn is creeping into our reality.
Pretty soon, the potted Chrysanthemum Ball plants will appear in the garden centres and super markets, which inaugurate the new season. Nowadays, they already start appearing towards the end of August and it makes my wife think every year: “No, no, not yet, not now, too soon, go away, summer is still here!”
What will also happen is that spiders will appear everywhere. It is their season. The spider webs – that always are there, but are basically invisible – will be accentuated by the drops of rain or dew and the insects that are trying to find a good hideaway for the winter will get caught in the webs. Every morning, I walk through a narrow path with bushes on each side and soon I’ll have to take an umbrella or some other object to wave it in front of me, lest I walk into a big spider web with my face that has been spun over the path.
Remember the series we did in July about seasons of life? One of the take-aways was: embrace the season you’re in. Now it is time to practice that! Some of us might be fond of fall, but generally more people have an issue to let go of the summer season.
Let’s set our hearts on the admonishment of the writer of Ecclesiastes:
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. (3:1)
So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them? (3:22)
Embrace that summer is (almost) over, that autumn is around the corner, that things are changing, the heat will be gone, it will get colder, spiders are reigning. One thing that doesn’t change is that God is there, He is our rock, our refuge, our stimulator, our counsellor. Also in the fall of 2024.
If we can practice this ‘embracing’ with the change of a season that we know is coming and is inevitable, we will also be better positioned to handle the unexpected stuff. When we must embrace a change of season that comes crashing into our lives unplanned and uninvited. The God we serve is a God of all seasons, planned and unplanned.