Devotions are written by Sharon Pierce previous Executive Director of the Women at the Well Ministries of PA
Seasons
A friend in my Writer's Group wrote an insightful essay about something that is common to each one of us, though we are too busy----or tired---- to really think about it.
Eccl. 3:1 says, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” This post is a poignant retelling of this verse.
Transitions
by Leslie Wilhelm
As I sit in the hospital waiting room, looking out the window, I see trees, trees and more trees, awash with color. Red, green, pink, yellow, brown, and even blue leaves --- all clinging desperately to their branches. The sun is shining on a clear day with a crisp shift in the fall air.
The leaves are clinging to branches hoping to last if they can. Yet the chill wind changes the flow of life. The sap withdraws from the clinging leaves. Ultimately, they fall away. Leaving the branches bare, allowing the trees to enter winter's harsh changes safely.
Miraculously, in this transition from summer to fall and into winter, the trees still live. Leaves changing their color and eventually dropping off are merely indicators of internal shifts. As the trees enter their next phase, life still flows. It proves change isn't always deadly; there is a difference between dormancy and demise. Even in the falling away of the old, life continues...just in a different form. Different becomes preparation......preparation for the seasons to come.
The tree's sap still flows, but trees adapt as they have been created to do. It's the same with us. When life evolves, parts of who we are may drop off, leaving them behind on our journey. It's just a sign of coming into something more.
Eccl. 3:11 says, “Yet God made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.”
Lord, whether we are advanced in years, or just beginning this journey of life, please help us to savor each season that You bring to us, and may we bring You glory in the seasons You provide.
A friend in my Writer's Group wrote an insightful essay about something that is common to each one of us, though we are too busy----or tired---- to really think about it.
Eccl. 3:1 says, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” This post is a poignant retelling of this verse.
Transitions
by Leslie Wilhelm
As I sit in the hospital waiting room, looking out the window, I see trees, trees and more trees, awash with color. Red, green, pink, yellow, brown, and even blue leaves --- all clinging desperately to their branches. The sun is shining on a clear day with a crisp shift in the fall air.
The leaves are clinging to branches hoping to last if they can. Yet the chill wind changes the flow of life. The sap withdraws from the clinging leaves. Ultimately, they fall away. Leaving the branches bare, allowing the trees to enter winter's harsh changes safely.
Miraculously, in this transition from summer to fall and into winter, the trees still live. Leaves changing their color and eventually dropping off are merely indicators of internal shifts. As the trees enter their next phase, life still flows. It proves change isn't always deadly; there is a difference between dormancy and demise. Even in the falling away of the old, life continues...just in a different form. Different becomes preparation......preparation for the seasons to come.
The tree's sap still flows, but trees adapt as they have been created to do. It's the same with us. When life evolves, parts of who we are may drop off, leaving them behind on our journey. It's just a sign of coming into something more.
Eccl. 3:11 says, “Yet God made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.”
Lord, whether we are advanced in years, or just beginning this journey of life, please help us to savor each season that You bring to us, and may we bring You glory in the seasons You provide.
