Because of this lack of knowledge of the daily forecast, I was prepared for a chilly start to what I thought would be an otherwise beautiful Sunday. After an extraordinarily frustrating weekend, I was rather looking forward to sunshine glimmering through the windows of the church yesterday morning when I walked out the front door to a cloudy, overcast sky. It looked like the making of yet another one of those days that have been the norm this winter. My spirit sank. I was looking forward to sunshine and warmer temperatures that were nowhere to be seen. I began the drive to church literally dreading the cold and wet that were sure to follow. Even the bare trees on the mountain side seemed gloomier with their limbs drooping in the morning dew. They too had been looking forward to a taste of spring.
Then, out of the gray dreariness they appeared on the corner across the street from the church – three bright pink red bud trees. They were glorious! There are few things prettier than the early blooms of a red bud, but these were even better set against such a pale backdrop. Immediately, my soul was lifted and I felt rejuvenated. I sat at the traffic signal and said a prayer of thanks to a God that has expressed His personal beauty in the nature around us. I immediately began to think about this post. So much so that I drove back to the church that evening with my camera just to take a picture of the three trees. To me the trees served as an example of God faithfulness to provide. In this case, after a particularly arduous winter, we crave those pleasant breezes through our hair and the warm sunshine on our cheeks. Likewise, after the long, dry, southern summer we find ourselves anticipating the cooler air and long shadows of fall. In addition to the agricultural necessity of the changing of the seasons, it is God’s way of reminding us that just at the moment we become weary, He will provide the refreshing breeze our soul so desperately needs.
Of course, the first verse that comes to mind is Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” Side note: This, in turn, made me think of The Byrds song, "Turn, Turn, Turn". (And yes, the pun was intended.) The song is surprisingly verbatim for the verses.
However, after the encounter with the red buds, the order of worship for our Morning Worship service materialized as if it had been planned in tandem with the thoughts of God’s faithfulness to renew our weariness. Different verses and thoughts came into consideration in light of the changing of the seasons. The call to worship was titled, “My Soul Thirsts For You, O God.” The scripture reading for the day was Psalm 63:1-8 which begins, “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.” We went on to sing one of my favorite hymns, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” which only continued to speak to the evidence given by the changing seasons for God’s provisions with stanzas like:
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Now to the correlation between all the trees and songs and devotions on divorce: I have a friend who is currently in the process of divorcing her adulterous husband. She filed for divorce sometime early last summer and they have not yet reached mediation. She is living in very difficult circumstances while awaiting decisions to be made and they have a long way to go before anything will be finalized. Another friend fought a similarly difficult battle with her spouse for over two years before the judge at last signed the papers. By comparison my personal divorce was short and simple. I filed the first week of August and everything was said and done by October 29th. But even as quick as mine was settled, we continue to work through the difficulties of shared custody. There are great feelings of walking through a “dry and weary land where there is no water.” The bleakness of the winter is endured while longing for the refreshment of spring.
That is the promise God has made and the promise that He reminds us of with the changing of every season. It is the promise that it is just a season through which we are passing. One of the few things I remember my late grandmother saying was “the Bible never says “and it came to stay,’ it always says, ‘and it came to pass.’” She was making gravy over a hot stove during August in Mobile when she said those words. We were miserable HOT and were desperate for the cool breezes October promised. In a similar fashion, divorce is a season of our life that God has promised will pass. Even, in the midst of the dreariness, God continues to prove faithful. Verse 8 of Psalm 63 says, “my soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” God has promised that there is hope coming and until that red bud tree blooms or the first fall breeze blows through the changing leaves, His right hand is outstretched allowing us to rest.
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