Changing Seasons

♫Turn Turn Turn♫

November is a month of change for me.  Besides being a month of Autumn when most of the leaves will fall off the trees in our area, it is the month of my birth as well as the month of my mother's death.  It will be 19 years this month since my mother passed and 63 years since she gave birth to me.  

As Jennifer Benson Schuldt wrote in today's Our Daily Bread,  "Sometimes we welcome change in our lives." It was November 47 years ago that I met and fell in love with my husband.  During the 18 years I spent under my parents' roof I moved 15 times.  Only a few moves were hard for me.  The rest I relished because it gave me an opportunity to present myself as someone different--to start over.  Yet I very much wanted to put down roots once I had my own family.  So we bought a house with our children in mind in which we could live the rest of our lives.  That was more than 32 years ago.  From time to time, though, I find myself getting restless.  That is when I rearrange furniture or even switch rooms around.

Our Daily Bread goes on to say, "But often it is difficult, especially when it involves sorrow and loss."  Our three sons are grown and have homes of their own now.  Our parents and grandparents have passed as have most of our aunts and uncles.  Not only are the seasons changing but the landscape of our lives is changing as well.  Sometimes I find myself looking ahead and seeing my aging body and wonder how it will be--life.  Statistically, my husband's obituary will appear in the paper before mine.  More loss.  More change.  

But November is also when we celebrate Thanksgiving.  As I continued reading I found much to be thankful for, "Because God remains the same, we can rely on Him through the shifting seasons of life," and I found a peace settling over me.  Yes, of course, how could I forget to include God in the equation of change?  To know that He never changes--that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever--enables me to accept and endure the earthly changes that are unexpected as well as the inevitable ones because He'll always, always be there for me--through moves, through losses, through deaths.

Father, Your constancy in my life keeps me not only afloat, but brings an enthusiasm for life I would not have otherwise.  Thank You for Your everlasting love.

Link to scripture:  James 1:17 

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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8