I looked out over the soccer field, enjoying the early evening light. How have I not done this more – ended the day with a walk by myself?! Suddenly the value of worship in my ears, hikers on my feet, and a warmly layered body became an embodiment of healing for the day.
My feet crunched both spring snow and last year’s yellowed grass. These in-between seasons are so messy, but they always exist. God created seasons, but the transitions themselves can be slow and full of surprises. Perhaps it’s just one of God’s ways to show us that both beauty and messiness CAN coexist.
There’s about a month or two in our springtime that is brown and dirty and you have two season’s worth of clothes always on hand. The lines from spring to summer are a bit more blurry, though real growth and rest often happens the most in summer after a push of work in the spring. Summer to autumn holds unmatched beauty when it fades slowly – my favourite. It’s a slowing of adventures into a season of harvest and thankfulness. And fall to winter usually hits hard and causes us to retreat into our “nests”, causing us to ask – why do we live here again? That transition can come and go and shake us up a bit.
Transition of seasons can be both long and blurry, beautiful and hard. Shake us up on the inside while wooing us to the next.
And yet aren’t the seasons a beautiful reminder that there is purpose in each season? Each one is invaluable in causing nature to grow and to what it was meant to do. For growth and adventure, rest and work. For me, I often try to guess what the next season will hold or make sense of the last. Blurred season lines are very common.
One thing God has sparked in my heart over the last year or so is to cultivate seeing beauty and His gifts in every day. Notice them. Take a picture. Write it down. Very much prompted by Ann Voskamp’s journey of 100 Gifts, I too have found that when I feel messy in my season if I can just look around at His present presents – my lungs can fill with air again.
So, for today – this season – whether it’s full-on summer or transitioning from winter (like we are!) – let’s strap on our hikers and dress according to the season we are in and trust the transition to the One who made our seasons. Knowing that He is always with us in each one (Psalm 91:15, Hebrews 13:5).
Two seasons in just one glance,
You woo us in a mysterious dance.
Somewhat messy and holy at the same time,
We tiptoe in fear when only you hold the sublime.
Can we just this one time be still,
The in between is meant to both empty and fill.
Believing that where we are is the right place,
It’s this other season where we see your face.
This “Slow down and enjoy me” is poignant, Lani!