It’s a New Season!

One part of my morning routine that I usually don’t mention is putting on my shoes.  Now, I know that this is not a mind-boggling event so I tend to skip it when I describe my daily schedule, but while it may not be real exciting to you, it is always a poignant moment for me at the beginning of each day.

After getting ready for the day, I shuffle down the hallway in my socks, grab my shoes that I kicked off the previous night when I sat down to watch TV and sit down on the coffee table.  Now that butcher block coffee table is a story in itself as I believe it is the last original piece of furniture that I still have from the décor we bought with some of the money we received as wedding gifts!  It is built like a rock and is still in great condition as I have tenderly cared for it over the years.  It was also the most expensive piece of furniture we purchased back then, opting to go to a fancy natural wood furniture store for it instead of Sears, where we got just about everything else… with my 10% employee discount. (who ever said that we weren’t smart shoppers!)

So, I grab my hiking shoes, slip them on and tie the knots.  Then without fail, I lean to my right and pick up the hard-bound illustrated history of cars book that Piper bought me many years ago and lovingly read the inscription she penned inside the cover.

“Dear Jimmy,

Hope you enjoy this book as much as I have (HA! HA!)

Love always,

(your pitstop girl)

Piper ---------"

Underneath the note is a PS that tells me to check out page 47 in the lower right-hand corner which is a picture and description of the same model of MGB that I had at the time.

The notation is dated December 25, 1973.  We had been engaged for about 5 months at the time after dating for three years previous to our engagement.  Whenever I read her words in the book, I can’t help but flash back to that special time in our lives.  Today I looked up at the dog sitting across from me on the couch and sort of absent-mindedly said, “Who would have known that some 46 years after she gave me that book as a gift, that she would be gone and I would be sitting on the couch in our living room… alone… without her?”  Then I began to ponder the idea of the different seasons of life that each of us go through over the course of the years that we spend on this earth. 

As I listened to another sermon on seasons yesterday morning, I wrote in my “Piper’s Story” journal that “I’ve just got to face it… Piper was always my past, present and future, but now, she is only my past!”  And I had a peace with the revelation that she has most likely, whole heartedly accepted that fact as she is abiding in the glories of heaven and is blessed to have the full picture of our new relationship.  I, on the other hand, am still hindered by my physical residence here on the earth and fail to grasp the full understanding of it all.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:” (KJV)   And I get it… although I don’t quite understand any of it, but I am in a new season of my life.  I believe it is my winter season of life and while it may be a time of cold and extreme weather events with grey skies and windy days, it is also a time when the soil is at rest and receiving new nutrition for the coming spring planting, summer growth and fall harvest.

So, like I did sitting in my La-Z-Boy chair yesterday afternoon, I am concentrating on the fact that I am in a time of rest, rejuvenation and re-direction for the coming spring where I am expecting new life to break forth from the ashes of what was left in me following the death of my loved one.

I liked the Hebrew definition of the word “purpose” in our scripture.  It means “pleasure, desire, a valuable thing, that in which one takes delight, an accomplished fact.”  That gives me a solid expectation that God still has a strong purpose for me and that it will be a delight for me to accomplish for Him.  So even though the current season may be cold and dark (although it’s been very spring-like out here for a few weeks now!), I am looking forward… according to my trust in the truth of His Word… to new seasons that offer new opportunities, new frontiers of ministry, new relationships, and a freshness of life that I never before could have expected!

And you know… His new seasons are the same for you, when you seek out His directions and promises for you that are hidden within the pages of His Word, as found in your Bible!  Go ahead… take a deeper look and find out what surprises and treasures that He has in store for you!

Have a great new week, and as you do, say with me… “I am expecting fulfilling new seasons ahead in my life… as I follow Him!”