May 2023
Dear Friends of First,
We’ve sure had a chance to experience a wide range of weather these last few weeks, haven’t we? I certainly hope we don’t see any more of that white stuff until December! I can hardly wait for those wonderful warm temperatures of summer to return. I welcome the change.
The changes in our weather aren’t the only seasons that we experience in our life. In fact, King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that “for everything there is a season.” I encourage you to read the whole chapter of Ecclesiastes 3. Solomon gives many examples of “changing seasons” in that chapter. Our life in its entirety is but a season in the greater concept of time. There is a planting season and a harvest season, times of sadness and times of laughter, seasons to save and store, and there are times to spend and give.
For many of us, the warmer weather isn’t the only change of season happening right now. All of us know of someone who will be getting married in the next few months or years. Laura and I have a son who will be getting married in September. Marriage begins a new season of life! Some of our church families have high schoolers graduating and ending this season of life and heading off to college or work in the fall. There are college seniors who are graduating and taking jobs. Laura and I have two sons graduating from college as well. These are just a few of the ways that our lives change over the course of time, and these kinds of things happen all through life!
At the end of his list of seasons in Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon says that this is the business God has given to us and that God has made everything beautiful in its time. You know, these kinds of changes are often wonderful, but there are also changing seasons that are painful and filled with sorrow. Those seasons can last months, years, and even forever. One of the main points of the book of Ecclesiastes is that God is in control through all these seasons of life and that God is looking out for us. It may not always look like it, but God sees things from a different angle, a better and eternal perspective, and God makes everything beautiful in its time!
Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 that the best thing for us whatever we do in any season is to be joyful, as long as we live, and take pleasure in our toil or work, whatever it is. He says that this is God’s gift to humanity.
Sometimes changes in our life cause fear. By nature, we don’t always like change. If that’s you, whether you’re graduating from high school or college, getting married, having a baby, moving, or retiring, remember that God is with you. God loves you and will take care of you, so enjoy whatever God has in store for your next season of life!
In Christ,
Pastor Jim