I noticed this week that my lawn was brown, dry, and crunchy. My bare feet were not enjoying the jabs and pokes of sharp blades of dead grass and dried pine needles. It is April. This is not what I would expect for a spring lawn and definitely not what I desire. I found myself longing for soft, green, vibrant, and lush but was instead facing the reality of a pine needle tip stuck in the bottom of my foot. Yet, in my heart and mind, I held out hope, hope that the rains of spring would come. And come they did. Today was a time of refreshing from the LORD. Tomorrow’s trek through the lawn is going to feel different.
I see many parallels between the state of my lawn and the state of life. Things seem dead, noisy, sharp, broken, and painful. We are dry, exhausted, ill, hurting, grieving, longing for hope and the good days. We long to be refreshed. What can we do while we wait for the times of refreshing to come? We can set our hearts to be right with God and look up to the sky in anticipation. He will refresh His people. We are simply between seasons.1
I hope the following reposted blog will encourage you.
*****
Between Seasons 2
These are difficult days. Long. Hard. Tiring.
We beg for relief from the firestorm that blazes around us. Will these days never end? Aloud we commentate. Silently we muse. In our hearts we wonder. In our minds we question. Confusion and chaos seem to reign supreme. But I want to encourage you to hold on. Hold on to hope. A change of season is coming. Refreshing rains. Beautiful colors interspersed amongst the landscape. The fruit of harvest.
Things will not always be as they are now. We are simply between seasons. Beyond what our eyes can see and what our minds can comprehend stands Jesus Christ, reigning supreme over all. Fully aware. Fully engaged. Fully planning to keep His promise to return for His own.
But something amazing can happen before the time of His return—He can speak peace to our storms even now and cause the raging winds to cease. We may not see it with our eyes, but we will know it in our spirits. Rays of light and hope will burst in and pervade the darkness and despair hanging over our heads. Peace will flood these plains of anxiety. Rivers of calm we have never known before will fill our quaking hearts.
We can invite His presence to enter into our situations. Today. Now. Even while this relenting heat beats down on our heads and tries to scorch every drop of hope we have remaining within us. He will come if we ask. We won’t need to fret or worry about what tomorrow holds because His power is real, His plan is perfect, and His peace is available. He created the world from nothing, and in Him all things exist and subsist.
So, while we are here between seasons—enduring difficult days and bracing for more yet to come—we can access His strength. He will enable us to pass through this dry season into a bountiful harvest.
“The LORD will give strength to His people;
The LORD will bless His people with peace.”
Psalm 29:11
“Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth,
waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.”
James 5:7
NOTES
1 See Acts 3:19–21.
©Text and photos Francee Strain, April 24, 2021. “Between Seasons 2” originally posted July 26, 2020.
Scripture quotations taken from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, ©1982, Thomas Nelson.
Come Unto Me Ministries 