To Everything There Is A Season…

Who knew the year 2020 was going to be such a year of challenge? Not me. I decided this was the year I was going to finish the three books I started. I was going back to the Rec Center to workout after I dropped Matt off at his day program. I was going to lose weight. I was going to plant flowers and bushes in my back yard. I was going to blog more. I was, I was, I was….

Instead I sat by my father’s bedside and held his hand for the last time. I helped plan a funeral and burial. I worked with my sisters as we divided up a lifetime of treasures. I helped pull weeds in Mom’s flower beds. I worked with a contractor to update the old homeplace. I met with a realtor to sell a house full of poignant memories.

Then Covid came and changed our world.

Instead of going to the farmers market, I planted porch tomatoes and herbs.

Instead of going shopping, I stayed home and reupholstered two 1940’s farm chairs.

Instead of perusing antique stores for patio furniture, I painted two rockers that used to sit on my Mom and Dad’s back porch. Instead of buying those cute little outdoor wall plaques from Sundance magazine, I put up the butterflies Mom had stored in a shed.

Instead of getting that cozy lounger and rug for my bedroom, I made it a place to exercise and do yoga.

Instead of going to a Red Rocks Concert, I played my own private piano concert.

Covid changed our world, probably forever, but there are things it didn’t change. It didn’t change the sunrises or sunsets; it didn’t change the summer rain or the winter snow; it didn’t change the seasons – summer, fall, winter and spring; it didn’t change birth or death; it didn’t change random acts of kindness; and it didn’t change love.

Today I pulled out Dad’s Bible and read Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8:

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to harvest; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to breakdown, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

I think I experienced just about everything mentioned in these verses this year, except maybe the part about a time to kill, unless you count when I accidentally forgot to water Matt’s flower and it died.  I got chills when I read the verse about the time to embrace and the time to refrain from embracing, because now with Covid there are no more hugs. But I also got hope, because after the time of war, it says there is a time of peace.

If there’s one thing I learned from 2020, it’s this: change is inevitable, just like Ecclesiastes says.  But the most important thing I learned is; I’m strong enough to adapt, strong enough to change, and strong enough to endure, because “I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength”. Philippians 4:13.

Now, can I get an “Amen!”, Brothers and Sisters!