I have spent most of this morning switching out closets from summer clothes to fall/winter clothes. The summer clothes went into the cedar closet and the winter clothes (including Christmas clothes) moved to the other closet.
Everytime I move clothes, I totally forget how HEAVY the clothes are...especially the summer clothes. It really takes a lot of work to get everything sorted out.
You know, it takes a lot of work to move from one season to another in our own lives. The Bible tells us about the different seasons of our life, both chronologically and emotionally.
We start out as children. It's my belief that some never leave that season...at least emotionally. *"When I was a child, I used to talk like a child and see things as a child does, and think like a child; but now that I have become an adult, I have finished with all childish ways." ( I Corinthians 13: 11) Boy, do I know some people that are childish and refuse to grow up. Now understand, there is a difference between childISH and childLIKE. We are never to give up that childLIKE wonder, obedience and awe when we read about, talk about, or talk to God.
But you can see in that verse that we are not to remain spiritual children. In Hebrews the writer tells us, "On this subject we have many things to say, they are difficult to explain because you have grown so slow at understanding. Indeed, when you should by this time have become masters, you need someone to teach you all over again the elements of the principles of God's sayings; you have gone back to needing milk, and not solid food. Truly, no one who is still living on milk can digest the doctrine of saving justice, being still a baby. Solid food is for adults with minds trained by practice to distinguish between good and bad." (12-14). The writer us that we should be growing spiritually and not constantly going back to learn the basics of grace, fellowship, and obedience. We are supposed to leave that "season" behind and continue growning in the likeness of Christ.
There are also emotional seasons. Anyone who has grieved a death can tell you that there are stages of grief like shock, anger, and acceptance (there are more but I don't remember them). Solomon wrote of our "seasons" in Ecclesiastes 3, "There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven: A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted. A time for killing, a time for healing; a time for knocking down, a time for building. A time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing. A time for throwing stones away, a time for gathering them; a time for embracing, a time to refain from embracing. A time for searching; a time for losing; a time for keeping, a time for discarding. A time for tearing, a time for sewing; a time for keeping silent, a time for speaking. A time for loving, a time for hating; a time for war, a time for peace. What do people gain from the efforts they make? I contemplate the task that God gives humaity to labor at. All that he does is apt for its time; but although he has given us an awareness of the passage of time, we can grasp neither the beginning nor the end of what God does." (v.1-11)
The seasons of the year mark the passage of time. We women switch out our clothes from one season to another. There are also emotional and spiritual markers for the passage of time that those that call themselves Christians use to make sure they are maturing in Christ.
We are placed here to grow into the likeness of Christ. Both of my closets have double mirrored doors, so I see a lot more of myself than I would like to as I switch my clothes to match the season. Look into the mirror and if we don't see the likeness of Christ, then make plans to do whatever is necessary to mature in Christ.
*all scripture quotes are from "The New Jerusalem Bible."
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