A Change of Seasons
* Dedicated in Loving Memory of Rebecca (Beca) Solberg McPherson
May 14, 1968 – August 20, 2025.
She was a dear friend, a Christ-follower & one of my favorite writers.
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Ecclesiastes 3:1
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
As I sat near the shore of the big, beautiful lake, a shiver went down my spine. A decidedly cooler breeze was blowing in. Sailboats in the distance had their billowing mainsails raised and trimmed while some had their spinnakers reaching as they joyously grabbed the wind and skipped across the water. A sudden shift in the late summer weather in Minnesota meant lower humidity and temperatures. It reminded me that my beloved summer was slipping away once again, soon to be replaced by autumn. The season had begun to change.
On that morning, more than most, I needed some space and some solitude to walk, to pray and to reflect. A dear friend* had only very recently passed from this life to the next. Grief and gratitude were fighting for space in my mind and heart. Grief for the end of our earthly friendship. Gratitude for the privilege of calling her my friend for many years. Underneath the conflicting emotions, there was an anchoring assurance of our future reunion in heaven due to our shared faith in Jesus Christ.
I was grateful for the slight chill in the air, as it meant fewer people were milling about, and for an unoccupied Adirondack chair at the end of a point of land overlooking the lake. Resting there to read, after a long walk with my dogs, gave me space to process my feelings, to spend time in God’s Word and to pray.
At the same time, the sorrow over my friend’s death was oddly juxtaposed against a backdrop of joy as I was anticipating my daughter’s upcoming wedding. My little girl was now a woman, and my joy for her was mixed with the wistful realization that my own life would never be quite as it once was. It was a busy season of joyous change in my life yet oddly blended with the inevitable mixed emotions that come with moving from one season of life to the next. My daughter would now be married, her childhood never to return. The already “empty nest” seemed a little emptier now. A different type of grief and gratitude were vying for my attention in that situation as well.
As the weather was changing, the seasons of my life were changing too. I found great relief and release in prayer and Bible study as I read Ecclesiastes 3: 1-11 (found at this link) https://www.bible.com/bible/114/ECC.3.NKJV on that blustery, late summer morning. As an older and wiser man, who’d gained wisdom by learning from his own mistakes and using a poetical form, the author (King Solomon) reflects. His wise words, tempered with pessimism but tinged with hope, helped me to reflect as well. While the waves lapped against the nearby shore, so joy and sorrow ebbed and flowed in my heart and mind. Tears came and went like the waves.
It was then that a still, small voice** seemed to whisper in my heart, “though the season’s change, My love remains.” The refrain from a worship song I had heard long ago suddenly pervaded my thoughts. Out of nowhere, the soft whisper of the Holy Spirit sparked my curiosity. I soon found the song online on my mobile phone and played it repeatedly while I prayed for my late friend’s beloved husband and children. It was a beautiful lament. Or perhaps a requiem, of sorts. The anointed lyrics of the song brought peace where there was sorrow, and comfort where there were questions, to soothe my aching soul. Along with them came a certainty that my friend’s family would be okay if they continued to lean on the same God she had trusted. I knew they would, just as they had during her six-year, heroic battle with cancer, in the midst of which her writing touched countless lives. My heart was assured that their “anchor” of faith would hold as hers had to the end.
Rather surprisingly, the song’s lyrics even ignited anticipation of a new, yet unseen, season of my own life which lay ahead, beyond my own child’s wedding. God was surely “speaking” to me in a way that I could understand. Somehow I just knew, in my heart of hearts, that no matter the season of my life, God’s love would indeed remain and sustain, as it always has. Along with that revelation, came God’s inexplicable but palpable presence and peace to guard my heart and mind. That peace that surpasses our understanding.
How about you? Did you need a reminder today that no matter the season of your life, God’s love for you remains the same? Whether your arms or your “nest” are empty or full, whether you are in a season of rejoicing or in sorrow, or even in a little bit of both like me; you can lean on Jesus. His perfect peace is as near to you as a whispered, heartfelt prayer.
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Below is the link to the beautiful song that the Holy Spirit brought to my mind that day. The artist is “United Pursuit” and the title is:
“Season’s Change”
https0://youtu.be/F7k5pqBVinA?si=-EVio8-kP_ik-ciG
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**For more on the gifts and guidance of the Holy Spirit, check out my book, GOD SPEAKS: The Guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts & Today found on my website or on Amazon. Please sign up below to read my posts in your inbox and SHARE them with other’s who may need encouragement in their faith journey.
