A time for every purpose....

I think you have to be of a certain age to remember The Byrds singing Turn! Turn! Turn!....the 60's version of this text from Ecclesiastes 3.

 "To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.  A time to weep and a time to laugh.  A time to mourn and a time to dance.   A time to be born and a time to die."

 

Whatever the season is....good or bad, rain or sun, health or illness, laughter or tears....its time will pass and another season will begin.

 We count on nothing lasting forever.  We remind ourselves of this truth when mired in the muck of unfathomable disaster, and try to forget its wisdom when everything is going our way. 

For many 'this too shall pass' is their only source of hope.  Unfortunately, as winter becomes spring becomes summer, even a welcomed up tick in our lives will inevitably turn yet again.  There is no end to this 'seasonal' perspective; it turns, turns, turns.

Perhaps the folks in Moore, OK will find some comfort in that.  They have nowhere to go but up.  Things have to get better, don't they?

And, if I stand back at a rational distance I know that every person who is born will one day die; that is the way of things.

But it will be a long time before the folks in Moore OK or Newtown CT or any number of places we can name will be able to embrace the brightness of a new day and trust in that tomorrow.  And it is too soon for my friend Mark, father to 3 adopted siblings who had been left orphaned, to finish his season of living.

So I will not build my hope on the turning of the seasons but rather on the resurrection of the Lord.  Tomorrow is in the hand of the Creator and Redeemer.  So I will pray for folks far away and a friend near to home because I want the One with the power to move heaven and earth to do just that.  AMEN