Think back five years ago. Was your life different from the way it is now?
Maybe you weren’t even a Christian at that time. Perhaps you have since gotten married or graduated or changed jobs or moved to a new place or had a baby (or two or more!). You may have experienced a life-altering tragedy or a surprising success.
Even if you don’t feel as if your life is dramatically different, change has occurred, however imperceptibly. You’ve probably walked through relational changes, experienced physical changes, learned new skills, or developed new interests.
Most significantly, if you are a believer, Christ has been conforming you to his image. Undoubtedly your life is different from the way it was five years ago. And the same will be true five years from now.
That’s because our lives are made up of changing seasons.
It tells us so in Ecclesiastes: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (3:1). This passage goes on to list fourteen couplets that cover the range of human activity.
Our lives are never static or stationary. New seasons keep rolling in—each with its own unique joys and challenges. In fact, just about the time we adjust to our present season, it’s time to make way for a new one!
A woman may pass through many seasons in her lifetime. Here are a few:
Childhood
Adolescence
Singleness
Marriage
Childbearing
Mothering preschool children
Mothering school-aged children
Mothering teenaged children
Empty-nesting
Menopause
Caregiving to elderly parents
Grandmothering
Widowhood
This is not an exhaustive list. There may be additional seasons you will experience and ones you will never pass through. For example, certain women may remain single throughout there lifetime, and not every woman will experience widowhood.
But we must understand the reality of our changing seasons if we want to “look carefully how we walk” and “make the best use of our time.” For the best deals vary from season to season. Last year’s bargain might be this year’s foolish purchase.
So, we must walk through each season with open eyes in order to make the best choices.
But our comfort is this: God orders the seasons of our lives.
Tomorrow we’ll consider this truth.
