In Due Season

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1. Someone put those words in beautiful script with artistic shading on a Facebook post.

It reminded me of a Guideposts story I read last night by Elizabeth Sherrill. She and her husband had taken a 50th anniversary trip to France and visited sites they had gone to when they were first married. As she noticed they didn't relish the food quite the way they did then, she reflected that they were younger then.

She remembered how hungry they had been due to the fact they had biked all day, and thought longingly of the energy they had then. At the quaint restaurant where they ate, reminiscent of the early days, she considered striking up a conversation with the proprietor, but, realizing she'd forgotten most of her French, decided her memory wasn't what it used to be.

On and on, as she made comparisons, she wondered if her present season was good for anything besides looking back. Then the proprietor surprised them with a lovely spray of feathery acacia, loaded with bright flowers. She exclaimed that since it was winter, he must have grown it in a greenhouse. He shook his head and said, "Acacia blooms in every season." She called it a gift of God, making her realize the flowering of a new season was before her.

The story struck home to me, since we are about to mark our 54th anniversary. I remember poignantly the season of raising my children, a busy, happy, if sometimes chaotic and exhausting, time. Now I see them in that season. My older children are involved in weddings, babies, and career launchings of their own kids. My middle children are in the throes of educating, guiding and training with their families. And my youngest has two pre-schoolers, my "babies".

So I find myself in a new season. Less resonsibility, which is nice, and more freedom to travel (to see the kids!), and time to enjoy and appreciate the present. Taking walks with my husband, noticing nature, our cozy room, front-porch sitting ( he with his books and me with the newspaper), to name a few. Watching (and assisting) his gardening efforts, and both pursuing our interests, whether in writing, music, or ministry, thanking God for His goodness. The Bible says, "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season, we will reap if we faint not,"
Galations 6:9.