In our life time we will experience a vast variety of changes and seasons.
Spring brings a fresh start; spring cleaning, pulling the curtains open and letting the crisp fresh air in.
Summer bring swimming, watermelon, lemon aid stands, picnics, restful long evenings, peaceful afternoons and golden toned skin.
Autumn brings crisp frosty mornings, pumpkin soup, candy corn, the smell of cinnamon, dark nights and the vibrancy of leaves transforming.
Winter brings Christmas lights, Christmas music, family visits, snow flakes, candy making and cookie baking and the ten pound winter weight.
The season I want to focus on is the Autumn season. There is nothing more beautiful than a vineyard in the fall. The colors and the rows and rows of changing leaves look like a rolling ocean of green, orange, yellow and brown. The contrast of the transition is incredible. There are some leaves that are still hanging on to their greenery and others that have succumbed to the yellows and orange hues. It makes for an amazing variety of ‘eye candy‘. One of my most favorite things to witness is leaves floating to the ground. Somersaulting from high above a tree and dancing its way to the ground.
We drove to El Paso to visit our son and were gone for 10 days. In those ten days autumn punched it up a notch here in the Northwest. Our drive home was spectacular once we were out of the southern states. However, as much as I appreciate the fall changes and the leaves falling, I began to feel a little like one of the trees watching its foliage lilt to the ground. Leaving our son in El Paso, injured from war and still not completely well, stirred something in me that wanted to grab and hang on to him with all my might! But I couldn’t. I had to let go. I had to let God be God and I had to go home. This was my moment of my leaves changing, falling and drifting. Although I probably could have used my power to hold onto my son, I had to use Gods power to let go.
There is something about ‘Transition and Women’ that we fully comprehend. We understand it in puberty when our bodies change. We are thrilled to get boobs and wear make-up. We hate periods. We love watching our belly grow with a little one inside of us. We dread transitional labor when our bodies convulse. We embrace it when our hearts go from living for ourselves to living for our children. We fight it when hot flashes and mood swings get the best of us. We wrestle with wrinkles and saddlebags. And we repel against it when the color of parenting changes and we watch our children leave the nest. Then there is the season of grand parenting. All the pruning, color changes and pain of letting go, are rewarded and we are full again.
Geographically, the bible land and its time of being written, had more of rainy season and summer season. When the bible mentions winter it is refereeing to the rainy season. And when it mentions spring or summer it is referring to planting and harvest. But here in the area where we are, the seasons have a visual sign that coaxes you into the transition.
In Gen 1:14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, AMP
Or in the KJV Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
The Hebrew word for Season is Mawed(moe odd), Meaning -A set time, a sacred time an appointed time. Like being betrothed.
Gen 17:21 But My covenant, My promise and pledge, I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.
Gen 18:14 Is anything too hard or too wonderful for the Lord? At the appointed time, when the season [for her delivery] comes around, I will return to you and Sarah shall have borne a son. AMP
Gen 21:2 For Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time God had told him.
It wasn’t about Sarah’s age or Abrahams age, it was about them being parents and the appointed time for Isaac to be born. It was Isaac’s season to be a son thus making it Sarah’s season to be a mother. God had a time on His calendar for Isaac to be born and He was not concerned with the age of the parents. God is concerned with the Trust of His people. Although God will not change nor can Change, He loves change!
God is about change because change can show who God is. Sinner to saint. Sorrow to Joy. Sickness to wholeness. Empty to full. But with the seasons and the appointed time He has set to display His goodness and power, He needs people who trust him during times of sorrow, sickness and emptiness. Trusting Him when the leaves are changing and falling to the ground. Trusting Him when the rainy seasons come. Remembering it’s in our trials we grow and learn who God really is.
Mark 6:30-37 tells a story of Jesus’ disciples learning to trust and serve from a place of rest. John the Baptist was just beheaded and Jesus had His disciples get into the boat and go to a place of rest, only to find the crowd beat them to the other side. In their “set aside time” of rest, Jesus was moved to compassion on the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He then told His disciples to feed the 5000+ people who followed them. He was taking them away to rest and then put them to work in their faith.
It’s imperative to rest our fields, our hearts and our minds. We must maintain a spirit of steadfastness as we operate and serve from that place of rest. Our winters and rainy seasons are times of positioning and appointments with God. Don’t run from them, go through them.
Please Read Esther 2:5-17
The time of year that Esther was taken from her home was the month of Tebeth. It is around our October-December time. The meaning for this month is “Goodness” though I doubt Esther felt any good could come from being taken from her safe home. She was taken in the winter, groomed for a year and presented to the king in the winter. Even though she was pampered and well cared for, this was a season of aloneness, secrecy, and character building. Esther’s summer had passed but it was for a selected time of goodness. It was for the appointed time of saving many lives and the saving of a nation. All though it was a wintery time for her, she started her season in Goodness and ended it in Goodness.
Esther 4:14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Psalm 74:17 You have fixed all the borders of the earth [the divisions of land and sea and of the nations]; You have made summer and winter.
Or it could be read this way.
You have set boundaries on my land, you have formed my territory like a potter; times of fruit, times of harvest and times of rain.
Facts about preparing a Vineyard for the Fall:
Vinedressers are harvesting their crops and preparing to crush the fruit. Both “harvest” and “crush” celebrations are plentiful this time of year in the valley. Temperatures have been cooler than average this summer, which is leading to a later harvest. Late harvest could mean excellent wine production for the year, as the flavors in the fruit have more time to mature.
Autumn is a great time to do garden improvements and maintenance;
1) Construct a pathway. 2) Sharpen your tools. 3) Improve your soil or mulch the garden beds. A little time spent on jobs, now, will help your vineyards power away in the Spring.
What is your Autumn preparing you for?
What is your time of change, changing in you?
Are you allowing your fruit to be pressed?
Are you sharpening your tools?
Are you enriching your soil?
Are you cutting away the dead pieces that are unproductive and unsightly?
Are you using your time that was used for planning to build walkways and pathways?
Note: The Greek meaning for season is Kairos meaning - a measure of Time, a Fixed Time and an Opportune Time. Galatians 6:9-10 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
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