WHEN ALL IS WELL

October is my favorite month. In South Africa, it is springtime. The long, wet winter on the southern tip of Africa is over. The birdsong in the morning comes earlier and sundown lingers, giving children more time to play outside in the cool evening air.  Our garden at the foot of the Helderberg mountain is in full spring bloom with bees buzzing and swallows swooping. The farms that surround our town are splattered with blossoms and bright green as fruit trees and vineyards burst from their winter gray. Did I mention that October is my favorite month?

My second home, Arizona, is saying a lengthy goodbye to the heat of summer with Autumn only just nudging at the gate. Mornings are fresh and my early walks are rewarded with a spectacular sunrise. October is filled with pumpkins, apple spice and cornucopias of orange and yellow.

With the change of seasons, my contemplative nature kicks into high gear. My grandchildren are now in a higher grade, and I am reminded that time is fleeting. I see a little more gray in my husband’s beard and try to ignore the new “laugh lines” around my eyes.

Our lives are made up of seasons – busy, slow, abundance, lack. Seasons of joy and seasons of sorrow. We can rail against the season, deny it, try and hold tight and control it or we can embrace it. 

Each season of our life is an opportunity. An opportunity to prune something away, making space for … space. We all need more margin for doing nothing but to sit in the presence of God. Perhaps the season brings room for adding … embracing something we have put off for too long.  Maybe we have experienced loss, and we are in a time of sorrow … denying it never helps. Looking our loss in the eye and accepting the stages of grief is an honorable process.

Whatever season you are in, this one thing I know - the Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged1.  In Him, all is well.

May we think on these things!

1 Dueteronomy 31:8