I love living in Arkansas. It is a state with four seasons. We moved here from California in 2000. We had spent a lot of years there. In California there are two seasons now. Fire season and drought season. It is a parched state. Very sad. Arkansas is the place to be! If you don’t like the weather in Arkansas just wait 30 minutes. That is true sometimes, but I have spent some humid hot days that I thought would never end.
For me I think fall is my favorite time of the year. The hot humid days of summer are fading away and the cool nights move in. The cool mornings follow soon thereafter. Before you know it, you are putting on a sweatshirt, then a light jacket and sometimes gloves. I love how God begins to paint His masterpieces in the sky and the trees and foliage. The beauty of His creation comes to life in living color. Have you ever noticed a maple tree that looks like God poured red paint on one side and orange on the other? It even seems that sometime overnight He was up into the wee hours painting the beautiful trees in His creation.
The beautiful fall colors can come anytime between October 1st through early November. If we have a lot of rain in September, we will usually have a pretty fall. However, if things are very dry throughout September, the colors seem somewhat rusty.
Have you ever thought about life having four seasons? The average life expectancy for a man living in the United States in 2021 is 76 years of age. So, let’s break that down into seasons. Spring would be between birth and 20 years of age. Summer would be 21 to 40. Fall would be 41 to 60. Winter would be 61 through 80. I am 63 and will be 64 in November. I am in the last season of my life. It feels like it too! I feel myself slowing down. I realize some men will live to be over a hundred years old and yet some never get the chance to enter the world after conception.
It is important to know we cannot control what time events unfold in our lives. God is in control of time. Our lives contain a mixture of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, harmony and struggle, and life and death. Each season has its appropriate time in the cycle of life. Nothing stays the same, and we, as God’s children, must learn to accept and adjust to God’s design. He is the only one that NEVER changes! Some seasons are difficult, and we may not understand what God is doing. In those times, we must humbly submit to the Lord’s plans and trust that he is working out his good purposes for our lives.
Across the world this morning thousands of people woke to a normal day but due to unforeseen circumstances, today they will breathe their last breath. Accidents happen and lives are taken in an instant. Each day in the world there are over 153,000 deaths. We must always be ready at a moment’s notice to meet Jesus. I am glad that he is the only one who knows my last moment. Live your life in a way that others can see Christ in your words and your actions. Be a witness for Jesus. Get to know him in a very personal, intimate way of closeness. Just knowing about him is not enough. When you first see him, you want it to be the most awesome experience ever. Stay in touch with him throughout your day every day.
Jim Everett
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
