Seasons of Our Lives

Hey guys!!
Guess what?? Christmas is only 4 Mondays away! I don’t know about you, but Christmas is my absolute favourite holiday. I love the lights, the music, and the joy that fills the season. One of the things I love most about Christmas though, is the hope that it brings in a season where not much around us is vibrant and full of life. All the pretty colours of fall have passed, and we’re a long way from spring, yet there is still a feeling that something new and amazing is coming. ​

The thing is, despite the love I have for Christmas, I tend to get caught up in the dreariness of winter, and the busyness of life that tends to build during that time. Dry seasons are things that we all experience in our relationships with God. Something I’ve been learning is that even in those seasons, God is working, even if we don’t feel like He is. 

​A few weeks ago I was introduced to the song Seasons by Hillsong Worship (linked). The song is based off the idea of winter as a season we go through in life. During winter everything feels dreary and nothing really grows. But, way back in the Old Testament, God sent a rainbow with a promise. Not just to never flood the earth again, but in Genesis 8:22, God says: “For as long as Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never stop.” The chorus of Seasons illustrates this in a really cool way by saying that God’s promises to us are like seeds. The season where those will grow is always going to come. 
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Another one of the coolest promises in the Bible is a prophecy in Isaiah 7:14. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born it says “The Lord himself will give you a miraculous sign. The virgin is going to have a baby. She will give birth to a son. And he will be called Immanuel.” God fulfilled that promise ages after He made it. Can you imagine waiting for hundred’s of years before getting something? I know I would get impatient, and might even give up on the idea of that promise all together. Except that God promises to keep His promises, and as long as God is working, we can’t stop waiting. 

Something I can’t help but notice is that year after year, I find I wait for the joy of Christmas to be the hope in the craziness of life. I think that if we were as excited about seeking Jesus in all seasons of our lives, as we are at Christmas, we would find that joy isn’t tied to warm fuzzy feelings, but to Jesus himself. I think maybe we’d find that our “winter” seasons with God, aren’t winter at all, but simply God working in different ways. 

I mean, God promised a saviour. God could have saved humanity in a second. Instead, He sent a baby, born in a manger of all things, and this baby was to be called King. Most of us would probably think God was just playing, and that something bigger and better would be in store for when the saviour arrived. Once we start to seek out God’s nature in that story though, we see that His promise to us was fulfilled. 

... joy isn't tied to warm fuzzy feelings, but to Jesus himself.

I pray that as we get closer to Christmas, you’ll be able to take a step back and see God at work in your life. I encourage you guys to try and build up a nature of patience. If God sent Jesus, our greatest hope, hundreds of years after He said he would, whatever work God has in store for your life is going to come, and it is going to be amazing!

I’m praying for all of you and I hope you all have an amazing month of Christmas ;)
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- Beluga ​​