Everyone has their favorite season of the year. For some it is spring, when flowers and trees are in full bloom and the earth seems to awaken with color. Others like the heat of summer signifying vacation time and days spent by the ocean or poolside. The Fall causes mixed feelings as children go back to school, but the days become cooler as we prepare for the end of the year holidays. Yet, others prefer the cold of winter and snow (well, where it does snow!) highlighting the end of a year and the beginning of a new one. Whichever season you may prefer, we usually enjoy our seasons one at a time. However, depending on where you live on our great planet, you may encounter a mixture of all the seasons in just one day! You might awake to a beautiful, sunny day and by mid-morning have a series of windstorms blow your way, followed by a drop in temperatures before rain showers decide to fall causing you to bring out your winter coat before the days end!

Often our lives are this way, we have beautiful days where everything falls into place so nicely for us. But, in a sudden turn of events, our days become dark and cloudy, turned over into a disarray of sadness and disappointments. God knew this would happen and told us so in His Word â€" Our Life’s Manual. In the book of Ecclesiastes, we see King Solomon, who sought wisdom above all else, asking: What is the meaning of life? In Chapter 3, God has revealed to him that there is a time set apart for everything we might go through in our lives.

“... a time to be born and a time to die,                                                                                                                     

a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,                                                                                              

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.�

The seasons in our lives may have us feeling as if we are roller-coasting through our days, but God’s plan is for us to enjoy life (Ecc. 3:12) knowing that He has full control of our seasons and for Him there are no surprises. He said: “Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is.� (Ecc. 3:15) So you see, we may very well experience all the seasons in one day because it is all in God’s time!

Suggested Prayer:

Dear Lord, I trust that you have control over what happens every minute of every day. I know that not a moment, and definitely not a season, in my life goes unnoticed to you. I take comfort in the fact that my life is in your hands, and in any season I may go through, I can lean on your strength to get me though. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

1. Ecclesiastes 3:1.