Four Seasons

I live in the good ole state of Iowa and we are fortunate to be able to experience the changing of the four seasons here. I happen to love it even though each particular season presents its own unique set of challenges. There are four of them to be exact, winter, summer, spring and fall. I like them all but to me there is something nostalgic about fall, when the weather changes from summer time heat to cooler temperatures and then finally winter brrrrr cold. What i like most about fall is the changing of the colors in the leaves, there is nothing more breath taking than beautiful fall colors in Iowa.

The human life experience is comparable to the four seasons in this way. There are four basic time frames to the human time spent here on earth. There is childhood, there is a adulthood, there is middle age and finally old age. Each age range presents its own unique set of challenges for the human experience as well. But like the changing of the four seasons the human life experience changes with time as well. Childhood is filled with innocence and learning about our environment. I am close to the baby boomer age so I remember the turbulent times of the 60's and my childhhood is filled with memories of the rampant social change our country was going through at the time. One of the positive affects that came out of the sixties is evident in our country, evident by us electing our first African American president Barrack Obama.

  We then reach adulthood and we take life by the horns and we know everything and we think we are never going to die. It seems love is always in the air as we find ourselves in pursuit of it through a meaningful relationship with someone of the opposite sex. We begin to form our own families and we start to find out that those stories our parents were telling us about life's trial and tribulations have an air of truth to them.

Next comes middle age and our perspective starts to changes we raise our children and experience the empty nest syndrome, and we realize we are not going to live forever and people that we know and love start to die. We also realize that all of our choices have not always been in our own best interests. So we plod on and for those of us who are wise we reconcile our lives with God and start to diligently seek his face, and guess what we find out that not only is he still there for us but had never left. You know like the footprints in the sand.

Finally we start to reach old age we watch as many friends and love ones pass on. Our parents are aging quickly now and we have to focus on there needs and our own. We have also probably got a crop of grandchildren running around and we realize that we have lived more years than what we have left. So we really start to value our time and how we spend it. We find that the suttleties of live really start to stand out and we notice the flowers in all of there beauty and we start to come to grips with the fact that we to will one day pass away. The bible says that if a man will walk upright and be obedient to the lord god will grant him three score and ten, which is 70 years. We hope and aspire to receive that.

To conclude life is similar to the four seasons, they are times that we love to appreciate for the qualities they bring in each one. There are good experiences and bad experiences that accompany each one just like life, and we must adjust accordingly to adequately navigate our way through it. Ultimately we realize that the amount of time we spend here is minimal compared to the eternity God has planned for us who are Christians. Our focus should not be on the changing of the seasons but to put quality of time into the years as they pass and earnestly develop a relationship with the almighty God, so that we give ourselves an opportunity to spend eternity with him,. nothing and I do mean nothing is more important than that.