Every Season is My Season!
I have had enough of winter! My husband and I brought our family from Michigan to Houston more than eleven years ago. We came for the balmy weather, for the sunny skies. I thought temperatures near and below freezing were behind us. But alas, we are again living through freezing temperatures. At least Houston’s winter only lasts a week or two!
My favorite Houston season is spring. Spring in Detroit is a grab-bag of rain, wind, clouds, and often snow, with just enough pleasant days sprinkled in to keep hope alive. Houston spring, however, arrives on March 1st and lasts a whole season! Everything bursts with green, flowers and trees bloom, and every seed that touches the dirt springs to life in this tropical paradise!
The beauty and pleasantness of the season inspires me to work in the yard, clear out last season’s dead plants and brown leaves, trim up bushes and trees, and plant flowers. It inspires my creativity when I hang a new wreath on my front door and bring in cuttings from my rose bushes. I skip from task to task under blue skies in perfect temperatures.
If winter were also my season, however, I would not have to do as much clean-up in the spring. If I did winter’s required pruning my Myrtles would bloom with even more pomp. If I cleared out the flower beds and raked the leaves during the winter then my spring planting would not be delayed. In fact, if I were productive and fruitful throughout the year, through every season, I would surely have the “Yard of the Month” sign in my front yard.
This is true for me in my spiritual life, and likely is true for you also. We all go through seasons we do not like, and our productivity suffers. When seasons come in our life that are cold and barren like a never-ending Michigan winter, we would rather withdraw to a more comfortable spot inside our house. When seasons of disappointment, discouragement, grief, depression, and even despair come into our lives it is hard to be fruitful.
The antidote is described in Psalms:
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Psalm 1:1-3
The person who keeps his mind set on the things of God and His Word, is like a tree. That tree is planted by streams of water and the tree draws life from that water. Likewise, we can draw life, living water, from the Lord that will give us life even in the bleakest of times. This Psalm 1 tree has leaves that never wither, never turn brown and fall off. It is never the off-season for this tree. The nearby stream of water gives supernatural life to the tree so it always bears fruit. When we remain planted in our relationship with the Lord we can be fruitful and prosperous in everything we do, no matter the season.
This is how Joseph was. He was a man that lived through a long season of betrayal by his brothers, an even longer season of injustice and imprisonment, and a bleak season of loneliness and longing for family and loved ones. And yet, when we read his story in Genesis, he was productive and fruitful through all those seasons. Though he was betrayed by his brothers and taken by force to Egypt and sold to Potipher, he worked faithfully and was fruitful in that position. Though he was falsely accused, convicted, and thrown in prison, he worked faithfully for the warden and was fruitful in that position. And when finally released from prison and resigned to remain in a foreign land to live out his days, he worked faithfully for Pharoah and was fruitful in that position. It did not matter what hard season Joseph was in, he remained planted in his relationship with God and was fruitful. Truly, whatever he did prospered.
When finally allowed to start his own family Joseph had two sons. Genesis 41 says this about Joseph:
Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph . . . The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”
Genesis 41:50, 52 (NIV)
Joseph recognized that it was God who had made him fruitful. It was God who was his source through all the agonizing seasons that preceded that day. It was God, by Whom Joseph remained planted, that kept his leaves green and kept the fruit coming no matter the circumstances. Every season was Joseph’s season.
Thank God that this blessing is not only for Joseph. We can all be like this, like a tree planted by the streams of water. We can draw life and strength from that water, from Jesus who gives living water, and is the Living Word. We can have green leaves all through the year, in every season, no matter the weather and what goes on around us. We can be fruitful and God can produce the fruit of the Spirit in and through us all year long. Every season can be our season.
What season are you in? Whether winter, spring, summer or fall, if you are planted and growing by the stream of living water, if you are reading God’s Word and have it in your mind and heart every day, if you are open to the influence of the Holy Spirit as your teacher and revealer of the truth of God and His Word you will find yourself producing fruit no matter your season. Every season can be your season!
