This picture ( which is really four pictures made into one ) shows how the island changes with the passing seasons. We all know that the changing seasons alter how the world looks, but its nice to see something like this to remind us.
This morning as I took my dog Pal for a walk, the cold wind seemed to go right through me. I remembered the past summer with its 90 degree temperatures every day for months on end ( actually June to October [maybe even November]here in Florida ) and thought: This WILL CHANGE and by March it will be warmer again. Then the following passage of Scripture came to my mind and I smiled, for it is very, very true.
Ecclesiastes 3 ( World English Bible )
Ecc 3:1, For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
Ecc 3:2, a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Ecc 3:3, a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
Ecc 3:4, a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ecc 3:5, a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
Ecc 3:6, a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
Ecc 3:7, a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
Ecc 3:8, a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecc 3:9, What profit has he who works in that in which he labors?
Ecc 3:10, I have seen the burden which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
Ecc 3:11, He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.
Yes, everything in its own time; even the cold of winter. Here in Florida it does get cold ( perhaps a day or two of freezing temperatures ), but when you experience 90 degree temperatures for most of the year, it just seems colder. After all, I could still be living in upstate New York with snow piled high and temperatures below zero. Somehow, after thinking about that, verse 11 seems even more true. Look around, things change. This year, as the seasons change, will I determine in my heart to grow even closer to God and follow HIM with all my heart; every bit of it? I wonder if anyone else reading this feels the same?