When God Turns the Calendar Page

Well, gracious me, friend, what a happy time for smilin’! Come right on up on and rustle yourself up a comfy seat on this ol’ front porch before that cool autumn breeze gits to blowin’ and carries your hat clean past the woodpile over yonder. Life plum changes seasons faster than a lil’ ol’ flock of blackbirds can empty a berry bush. One minute everything’s bloomin’ like Grandma’s prize flowerbed, and the next you’re wonderin’ why the trees are lettin’ go of everything they spent all summer growin’. Yet Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us that “to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Nothin’ in God’s calendar is ever accidental.

Solomon sho’-nuff’ tells us there’s “a time to weep, and a time to laugh,” “a time to mourn, and a time to dance” (Ecclesiastes 3:4). Some seasons plum bring blossoms. Others shake loose the leaves. But both plum belong to God.

That’s why Psalm 31:15 gives such great comfort saying, “My times are in thy hand.” Your life ain’t tumblin’ around like a loose pumpkin rollin’ downhill. Every season rests inside hands much wiser than ours.

God even promised after the flood that “seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter...shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). Creation itself preaches that change don’t mean abandonment. Winter looks mighty empty, but roots are still plum alive beneath the ground.

Maybe you’re enjoyin’ a springtime season right now. Praise Him for it. Maybe yours feels more like November after the last leaf skedaddled and even the lil’ ol’ squirrels look real concerned. You’ve gotta be trustin’ Him there, too. God grows things in sunshine, but He also plum deepens roots in the colder ground.

Father, thank You for holding every season of my life in Your hands. Help me receive joyful days with gratitude and difficult days with trust. When circumstances change, remind me that Your character never does change. Grow me through every season and teach me to see Your goodness even when I cannot yet understand Your purpose. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Alright now, friend, go on out there and meet the rest of this day before that ol’ calendar flips another page without askin’ permission. Don’t you be fussin’ at the fallin’ leaves because they’re makin’ room for what God is gonna be sendin’ next. A bare branch ain’t no dead promise, and a real quiet, bare field ain’t no empty one. Whatever season you’re walkin’ through, keep your heart turned toward the One that holds the weather, the harvest, and every tomorrow still waitin’ for you on down the road.

With joy,

Gwen