Seasons are one of my favorite things. The temperature changes, colors change, holidays change, everything is fresh. Things look different and feel different. Like most women, I have a close relationship with the fall. Something about the warm colors, semi-cool air and pumpkin flavored everything just gets all up in my heart and makes it feel safe and cozy. Now, winter and summer is a different story. I love the first month then I am begging for the next. Yet, I find myself always wanting the next season to come around, besides fall. I always want fall to stay. Recently, I have had to come to grips with the fact that people and places and things we love and cherish come in seasons as well.
We all have had people come in and out of our lives. Some we accept a bit more graciously than others. We are thankful for their presence, but we knew it would only be for a season anyways. But in adulthood, I have learned that seasons come with those and places we thought would be forever. There are people in my life that I absolutely adore. I love their souls and their presence. They have been there for me when I had no one. They have seen my tears and brokenness. We have laughed till we cried and shared our stories with each other. I have had mentors that I know God put in my life at the perfect time. I have friends that I have known for what seems like forever and that I would do anything for. I have had relationships with people that I love with every fiber of my being. These are people that I want to carry around in my pocket for the rest of my life. They are people where it hurt physically to move away from them. There are places like my home church that I basically lived in for six years. Where I found a church family and I found Jesus in a real way for myself. A place where I flourished into who I am. There are places like the easiness of driving up the road to the town square for a cup of coffee a few times a week. There is high school and people I grew up with. There are opportunities like leading elementary school kids at a local school. There are family members that I miss. There are the car rides to school and the way I grew up. There are so many things that feel like they slipped through my grip or like I did something wrong, but God has laid on my heart the importance of seasons.
These people, places and things have a special hold on my heart. The kind of tightness that feels good, but the kind of tightness where if it loses even a bit of grip it feels like you're missing a piece of yourself. Moving away or new relationships or new jobs, or whatever has caused the separation of these people or places in your life is natural. People always say that your relationship with people always changes when you graduate and it is true. We don't share the closeness with these people because we all have new seasons. We all have different dreams and different callings that call us to new places, but change stinks. It's easy to think it's you. It's easy to think that people don't care about you or they have forgotten you. That isn't the case. There are seasons in our life. There are seasons of mentors. There are seasons of friends. There are seasons of places. This in no way changes the way I love these people or places. I still talk to them all and go to these places, but it is different and will continue to be different. When we hold on to everything when we are all going in different directions, it leads to us not fully being committed to God's plans. It is hard. I know that every person I love is for me and every person I love I am for them forever. God writes our story and that story comes with chapters with new people and new places. Don't be scared of seasons. There is beauty in new. There is beauty in surrendering to change that is inevitable. Trust the seasons. New seasons bring new colors, new celebrations and new life. Never forget your past seasons, rejoice in them and be thankful they happened. Look forward to what God is going to do in this new chapter. Rest on his promises and his Word. You are where you are, with who you're with right now, for a specific, heavenly reason.
