I don’t know what the weather is like where you live, but here on the southern coast of NC, we have more than four seasons. Instead of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, we have Fake Spring, Cold Spring, Warm Spring, Pre-Summer Spring, Cold-Again Spring, Never-Ending-Murderously-Hot Summer, I-Bet-You-Thought-Summer-Was-Over Summer, Glorious Fall (oh so short), Cold Rain Winter, Ice, and back to Fake Spring. The “seasons” here are as wishy-washy as the Maytag in my laundry room. In the words of Mr. Gump, quoting his enthusiastically dedicated mama, our seasons are “like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gunna get”. The seasons of our life are as such, filled with bitter and sweet, high and low, sun and rain.
Back in January, while we were desperately awaiting an end to the bone-chilling cold rain, we had a spell of Fake Spring. With the sudden increase in temperature and sunlight came the subtle, tender little shoots of baby grass popping up in my dead, brown yard. We had so much rain and warmth that the vegetation assumed it was safe to come out. However, those were not April showers, and they did not bring May flowers. A nice reprieve from cold rains was the sunshine. However, we knew there was still more winter coming. During this time, I was reminded, that even in the dead of winter there are still glimmers of hope for the warm, sunny days to come.
You see, just like those baby grass shoots in my yard, God can spring up a new baby hope in us when it seems like the sun of joy and happiness will never return. Even when all we feel is the cold, wet rain of disappointment, discouragement, and even the downpour of despair, we know that the sun will come back! The rain only lasts for a short time.
Leviticus 26:4 says:
“Then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit”.
Here God is speaking to the Israelites concerning their reward for being obedient to Him. As believers, when we think of rain, we think depression, heaviness, clouded thoughts, tears, hurt. God gives us rain for a season, but that rain ‘shall yield its increase’ and the fields of our lives shall yield their spiritual fruit. We can never expect to grow if we never get rained on. We can never fully appreciate the warmth of the sun if it is never taken away for a time.
1 Peter 5:10 says:
“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you”.
Knowing this, we can take comfort in the fact that although we must endure the rain, the trials, and the difficulties, there is a greater purpose in it all.
Romans 8:28 tells us:
"And we know that all things work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose".
We NEED the rain to establish and nourish our roots and to bring forth the fruit. When we are rooted in Christ Jesus, we are set on the strongest foundation (Col. 2:7). And as the seasons of our life change, we can hold onto Him who is our Rock.
Right now, your season may look like endless piles of laundry, mountains of dirty diapers, countless trips to the fertility doctor because motherhood just keeps dodging you. Maybe you are in the middle of a divorce or high on the mountain of a new marriage. You may be living the single life, waiting for God to give you a purpose. Personally, I am in a season of figuring out how to just be the best wife and mom I can be and maintain my mental health that seemed to go haywire there for a while. Whatever season you are in, it serves a purpose. There is a testimony at the end and the more you lean into Jesus as the source of your joy and your strength, the sweeter the return after the rains and trials are over.
Are you in a season of plenty? Or a season of drought? Do you feel content in life or do you long for more? How you look at your seasons has a lot to do with your relationship with the Father. Do you seek Him daily in His Word and in prayer? Or have you neglected that most intimate relationship? My dear sweet friend, this life is fraught with storms and famines, but we have a heavenly Father who has provided a way for us stand firm in such times. Through every season, through all the hurt, in every moment of joy, He is there. In Jesus we have our rescue and our shelter. We have our joy and our peace that passes all understanding. We have the rain, but we also have the Son!
So, let us praise Him in our sunshine and in our storms and remember that when we are being watered, sometimes drowned, it is to produce a harvest!
"When you accept the fact that sometimes seasons are dry and times are hard and that God is in control of both, you will discover a sense of divine refuge, because the hope then is in God and not in yourself".
-Charles R. Swindoll
Stay humble, stay hungry, and keep choosing the good portion!