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Topic: CALENDAR (10/20/16)
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TITLE: The Seasons of My Life | Previous Challenge Entry
By Elaine Hemingway
10/27/16 -
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Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are His.
He changes times and seasons; … Daniel 2:20-21a
What a wonderful time is the Spring when calendars proclaim the new growth and here in the Northern Hemisphere the colourful bulbs burst forth. They have lain dormant but suddenly daffodils, then tulips, anemones, hyacinths and bluebells burst forth. Spring showers bring out the budding pansies and the shy violets and put them on a growing curve. As in the Spring of our lives there is such potential for development as we learn the disciplines of schooling and the hazards of social learning, reaching teenage years with excitement mixed with trepidation. In my Spring, I started New Life with my confession of belief in my Saviour.
When does the Summer start? In my case it was in my twenties when adventure beckoned. I left home for new pastures, embarked on married life and started a new family. But even then one is inclined to look back with nostalgia to missed opportunities, lost loves, mistakes or the recognition of blessings.
I remember one morning waking to see a patch of green on the barren earth of an African summer’s day that had been washed by a welcome shower after a prolonged drought. “What’s that?” I asked the Lord, and He replied with a gentle smile. “Spring Onions.” I wondered what they had to do with what I had been praying about. “They have been waiting for refreshment,” He said. “They needed the rain to give them life, just as my people need the Living Water that only I can give.”
I was led to John 4 where I read of the Samaritan woman, and how she went back to her village after meeting Jesus to say to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I did. Could this be the Christ?”
And Jesus told His disciples, “Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.” John 4:36.
I went on to John 10:1-18 and recognised the message He was giving me about the person I had been praying for. I was able to share the message and give the testimony of how my Shepherd had called me by name and was calling them. This led me to the awareness through to the Autumn of my life of how important it is to share what we have received. And so how a new Spring can start for a new believer.
But now, is it Autumn or Winter? My garden of remembrance is filled with seasonal triumphs and disappointments, blessings of blossoms through every period. There have been opportunities for learning just as a gardener’s knowledge grows through every time of year. Some things have had to be weeded out, and cultivation worked at. Ahead lie many more opportunities to share in the great commission as given in the last recorded words of Jesus.
All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
A New Spring beckons.
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