Outside my kitchen window the seasons are about to change once again. The leaves are turning luxuriant autumn shades. Soon they'll be tumbling to the ground from their high perch atop the tree's tall branches.
Not that long ago, I watched as tiny green buds began to sprout on the barren branches, heralding the arrival of spring.
It seems like the older I become, the faster the seasons revolve, progressing almost at a dizzying pace. The bare trees become full of life, lustre and hope, only to fade and fall away, returning back to the earth, gone. Some branches develop a fuller or more colourful foliage than others, but in the end each eventually arrives at the same destination—with their final descent to the ground.
As I watch the transforming scenery I am reminded of a verse from Ecclesiastes, "a generation has passed, a generation has arrived, but the earth stands still forever." The names have changed, and the backdrop may be different. New marriages have been formed and new children born. Some families are larger, and some individuals achieve more colourful accomplishments. But each eventually repeats the cycle of life as love and birth changes season into loss and heartbreak.
I think about how each of us, too, has those personal moments of glory in our lives when we're in full bloom, sharing our abundant shade with others, giving off beautiful deeds for the world to appreciate. But these moments, too, wither away, as the wheel of life turns and our moments of inspiration and accomplishment are depleted. We start off our lives full of wonder, expecting the most, full of hope and belief in our unlimited potential; only to have our expectations, dreams and idealism tumble down into reality with the passage of time.
Looking out my window, I wonder if there is any point or purpose to these cycles. Is our world progressing forward, or are we just in a cycle of endless and meaningless repetition? Is there a purpose to these revolving seasons or is it merely an aimless, incessant sequence?
Yet the fading tree seems to be whispering its message. When we moved into our home several years ago, this tree was but a small sapling, so weak and hapless that it was almost blown about by the raging winter winds. Over the changing seasons it has grown taller, thicker. Its branches now reach up to the heavens; its roots have taken a firm grip in the earth. Though its leaves have fallen away throughout each of the seasons, its core has developed to a fuller and more mature stature.
And I think how the changing seasons in our own lives, too, leave their impact on us as individuals, and on our world as a whole.
Through the passage of time, we develop into stronger people, with deeper convictions and a surer sense of who we are. And looking back into our history, it is clear that our world as a whole is developing into a better humanity, standing tall and sure--while awaiting the time when our branches will actually touch the very heavens.
