To Everything There is a Season

I took Hannah out for a run/walk this morning. There is a particular route I like to go because we run along a ridge where I can get a breath taking view of the mountains. For a while, there was also beautiful green grasses and flowers out. As it is now closer to summer and the green in southern CA only lasts so long, I did not expect to enjoy the area nearly as much. Sure enough, as I was running, I noticed all the nasty brown dead weeds along the side of the road. Brown and dead. Not my favorite season.

We kept going though and suddenly around a corner were these amazingly huge bushes with white papery like flowers with a big fluffy yellow ball in the center. They were so pretty! Something new I had never seen along the trail that had to have just sprouted up in the last few weeks. I loved it!

It made me stop and realize that there is something special about each season...new things yet to be seen. Maybe it's not as green and colorful as earlier in the year, but it has new suprises of it's own.

Then, I began to notice more. There was a tree with all these yellow flowers blooming in it. Back up the trail I took more note of some beautiful purple flowers. Then passed through the section with the yellow mustard weeds. Yes, they are weeds, but I have to say I enjoy them. I remember being in Scotland over ten years ago and loving all the flowers - even the little tiny ones in the grass. I remember arguing with my friend Scott over the fact they were flowers, not weeds. Yes, he was probably right that they were weeds, but it's all in the perspective. Even weeds can have some beauty about them.

I passed a tree that looked like it had a soft pink fur covering it...I've actually passed this tree many times and liked it, but again, I was looking with new eyes...enjoying it even more than before since I was noticing all the beauty that this season still holds.

Isn't that so true in our own lives? We have different seasons...some hold more beauty and joy than others, but in every season there is truly something to rejoice about - it's all a matter of perspective and where you place your focus.

Ecclesiastes 3

1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
10I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
14I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.