I looked out the window, the buds on the tree were red, blooming with the possibility of spring. My mind flashes back to the first time I saw this tree, when its very presence added to the pros of the property we were considering purchasing. That was a season of waiting… on multiple things. Now the tree sits in a yard I own and a house I long prayed for sits behind it. Here’s the thing about seasons. If you’re like me you feel entitled to knowing when they change. As a photographer I wear many hats (that’s physically and figuratively for me) ranging from bookkeeper, accountant, and sometimes weatherman. Now that last one can be tricky… especially in Kentucky weather. It can change in an instance, suddenly.
Last April I shot my first wedding of 2022 on one of the coldest days. Somehow the day started with frosty air, maybe even some flurries, then clouds with cold rain spilling from the sky off and on. The venue opened up to rolling hills, yet gave us partial protection under the covered pavilion– this made it feel as though we were looking out a large window. It was almost as if there’d be a wall of rain in the distance, that would then disappear as quickly as it came. By sunset, the storm had rolled away and the sun broke through the gloomy gray abyss, blessing us with a true sunset. I felt like I had experienced three seasons in one day from the winter weather, to spring showers, and a summer sunset. I can still picture the rain covered landscape that was somehow still beautiful.
I’ve learned maybe seasons are more about preparing.
The past year seasons is a topic the Lord has continually placed on my heart. It’s like the word keeps coming back to the surface of my mind. And while it used to seem many of my seasons were defined by waiting, this past year there was a shift and I’ve learned maybe seasons are more about preparing.
Around this time last year, I prayed some bold prayers. If you read my last blog, “Open” then you know the gist of what some of those prayers entailed. I prayed God would use whenever and however He wanted to. I just had my 25th birthday and I feel like while I walked through so many mini-seasons, the overarching one that seemed to span most of last year was a season of preparation.
For a vast majority of last year I felt on the edge or brink of something, like God has been preparing me for something. During advent I learned preparation is actually laced in the definition of Advent. Not only that but the preparation correlates to “waiting with action.”
In my birthday post I declared that last year was one of the best years I’ve had. It was a year of so many answered prayers– my house, my community, being planted in a new church. Yet, I also walked through some of the hardest things I’ve walked through. Somehow that didn’t detract from the impact the year had on me as a whole. I realized when I felt so alone, when I felt betrayed or abandoned I also had unexplainable peace… joy in the chaos. Jesus showed me He was with me in every moment, every season. The chorus “This is my confidence, you’ve never failed me yet” comes to my mind.
Similarly, a line of a song I discovered during Christmas became my anthem for that season – “You’re the God of seasons, I’m just in the winter.”
See God is doing a work in you now. Building… Planting takes time. Psalm 1:3 says “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.” Another word for season as it is used in Genesis is “appointed times”. I remember last fall desperately praying for an answer and as I learned to listen for His voice I was directed to the scripture in Micah about “the appointed time.” Maybe you are in a season of planting and preparation, God will use you in His time, fruit will come in its season, and that may not be how or when you expected. I don’t want to be like the tree Jesus cursed because it didn’t produce fruit. I want to prosper.
A Bible story that comes to mind when I think of seasons and waiting with action is Ruth. Since it’s one of the shortest books in the Bible I think we often forget the length of the actual events in the story. Ruth is one of my favorite stories, maybe because God used this story to speak to me time and time again showing me He was there in a season of decisions, or maybe it’s because Ruth is the fairytale we all want. Maybe it’s a little of both. We all dream of finding our Boaz, our redeemer.
Ruth 2:23 says “So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvest” (ESV). According to several sources the wheat and barley harvest spanned 2-3 months, beginning in March or April and ending in May. The brief description in the story makes it seem redemption was almost instantaneous. However, from the time Boaz first noticed Ruth she continued gleaning and working hard individually for a couple months or for a season of preparation before gleaning her full reward that was to come. While this still seems like a short period of time in modern dating culture, it was definitely a season of waiting we often overlook. In an article, Michael Morrison stated barley had a tolerance for harsh conditions and was therefore a most important cereal (Harvest Seasons of ancient Israel.) I can’t help but think Ruth also had a tolerance for harsh conditions too.
I’ve been studying Ruth in Proverbs 31 First 5 app and one author wrote, “While Ruth was thinking about her survival, God was planning her redemption.”
Some seasons just look like surviving, and sometimes the gleaning is hard work until we get to the season of redeeming. There’s something about surrendering to your season and being present in the current condtions. I’ve heard many people declare you are always waiting for something. Once you get the marriage you may find yourself then waiting for a baby or something else. But I don’t want to spend every season waiting for the next one to come to fruition. I want to surrender to the season I am in, to sit in it fully. In the flood aftermath Noah sent out a dove and when it came back with the olive branch in tow it signified the rain was about to stop, that relief was coming. Your olive branch is coming!
A few other sermons I’ve recently listened to remind me of seasons. Travis Greene said “Become content in the valley.” He references Joseph being thrown in a pit by his brothers. Another quote I can’t get away from in this message is “maybe it was an invitation to use your hands.” Recently, some things haven’t gone the way I expected them to. It feels like my season has changed, yet I’m unsure of the next step to take. Maybe this valley season is daring you to start the thing you’ve been scared to. At my small group last week, they read a story that somehow in all my church going years and plethora of Sunday school lessons I hadn’t yet discovered. It was 2 Kings 6:1-7 about the servant cutting down a tree and accidentally dropping the Axe head in the water. After the servant cries out the man of God said in verse 6, “Where did it fall? When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float.” (ESV)
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“I don’t want to spend every season waiting for the next one to come to fruition. I want to surrender to the season I am in, to sit in it fully.”
Sometimes we need to remember where we fell. Revelation 2:5 says “Remember therefore from where you have fallen.” This may not seem to have much to do with seasons, but I realized studying this morning that somewhere along the way in the last season I forgot a little of who I am, conditions started to change me. But just like the song Defender says, “When I thought I lost me, you knew where I left me.” We can sometimes forget the tools that helped us in the past seasons, that kept us, we can’t forget our identity in Christ. He will remind us where we left it, and help us pick it back up. We have to return to our first love. And maybe things aren’t going the way you want because God is wanting you to use what’s already in your hands. I can’t take credit for these words of wisdom, I’ve heard it in different variations from several sources, but “ what if your greatest trial or hardest season is leading to your biggest blessing?”
Somewhere at the beginning of this year I felt a shift, like the seasons have changed… I’m that person who has basically been asking God to let me know when the season has changed. After so much waiting, I wanted to know when the atmosphere was going to shift, or better yet the environment. A quote on Jordan Lee Dooley’s podcast said, “Being aware of your season allows you to navigate it well.” The funny thing is it’s like I know it’s changed but I don’t know what this new season is. I kind of feel like that red bud on the tree outside my window, brimming with the possibility of what’s to come. Maybe God is waiting right where I left Him, waiting for me to take a step. The new season is here but I don’t know what it— what I will look like yet. And maybe there is beauty in the unknown. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
You may have noticed a recurring color scheme in these photos. I had an idea last year for an all green photoshoot showcasing every season. And while I thought this may be insignificant God definitely makes the color, the word green significant in His word. “But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:8) We see this in Psalm 23 when God says he will make us lie down in GREEN pastures . God isn’t just giving us rest, He’s giving us life. Some words I discovered when looking up this color were tranquility, refreshing, life, nature, and prosperity. Maybe we are all one our way to the green season God has already prepared. Sit in that, rest in it. Every season is preparing you for a future one, so don’t rush it. Keep yielding fruit, don’t drop your axe… if you do pick it up again. Savor this season, no matter the conditions.
I love this verse in Genesis. God truly is with us in every season and His promise to Noah after the flood lasts through every season.
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)
As I finish writing what has been an endless edit, that tree outside my window has a little more green on it. What seemed dead a few weeks ago suddenly has produced something.
Lord, help us to surrender to the season we are in. To spend the times of waiting working like Ruth did. Thank you Lord that we can reap what we didn’t sow sometimes because you are a gracious and generous God (Joshua 24) I know you are preparing me for something in every season so help me to be present and content in that until the next one. Thank you that you are not only the God of seasons, but you keep your promise in every season. I know you can stop the rain instantly, thank you for the light, and for life that you give us. Walk with us into our next season. In Jesus name.
Harvest seasons of ancient Israel. GCI Archive. (2018, August 6). Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://archive.gci.org/articles/harvest-seasons-of-ancient-israel/
