Enjoying each season of life

Summer is winding down. This year it seems the dog days began early and lingered long. Amusement parks and tourist sites are full of families trying to squeeze out the most from the last few days of summer vacation. The school supplies have been picked out, packed up and ready to go. Summer will unofficially reach its conclusion soon.

Ecclesiastes 3:1, popularized in 1956 by the Byrds, reads "For everything there is a season, and a time for everything under heaven."

Everything runs its course. The most difficult conclusion to come to is that everything will eventually end. Summer will end. School will end. Our experiences this side of eternity will come to an end.

The most difficult funerals I have ever had to be a part of are the ones where the end came too soon. A child, a young man or woman who gave their life in service of their country; a young grandma who lost her battle to cancer. All of these seem too soon.

The truth is they all seem to soon. Whether 8 or 88, everyone passes too soon.

If we live without the realization that there will be an end, we simply exist. Our lives are momentary. If we do not know there is a time for everything, then we will never know what is most valuable in the season we are in.

Seasons differ. One of the things to look forward to with the closing of summer is the cooler nights. Jackets and sweatshirts emerge from their hibernation. Slowly, and often reluctantly we adjust to the new season.

The same is true for the changing life seasons we enter in. We adjust from one season to the next, from the season of high school to the season of college. The season that a husband and pregnant wife will go through as they walk out the door a last time as a family of two only to enter a new season by walking back in as a family of three or more.

Or as retired friends recently said, "The best lights of Christmas are the ones from the taillights watching the children and grandchildren go back home."

We are in different seasons. Relish each season.

God has placed you in the season and time you are in for his purposes. For everything there is a season and a time.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more from him at www.robhurtgen.wordpress.com.