The holiday season is over. Thanksgiving is long gone. The Christmas decorations are put away. The “ball” has dropped. School has started. The college football champion has been crowned and the Super Bowl is just a few weeks away. Tax season has already begun, sooner than any of us would have liked. Winter has arrived, and the flu season is already claiming its victims.

Some seasons in life are more difficult than others, even here in Tryon. For some the “holiday season” is a joy, but for more than a few it is one of the most difficult times of the year. Changes and losses can unbearably magnify during the holiday season. In any season illnesses challenge us. Terror and tragedy can change life on a dime. Every family, every relationship, goes through its seasons, times of incredible pride and joy, and times when life seems almost too painful to bear.

A New Year begins a new season for all of us. There’s no way to know today what the whole season of our lives will be like, or how it will end, much less what will happen next week. In truth our lives have many seasons.

In one of the more famous verses in the Bible the writer of Ecclesiastes asserts: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). The writer of Ecclesiastes lists some 28 different “seasons” of life arranged in sharp contrast to each other, yet each one describing one of life’s realities.

Faith tells us that every season of life has meaning, even if we cannot see it in the moment. The birth of Jesus at Christmas reminds us that even the smallest events of life can have unexpected meaning. Who could have possibly predicted that the birth of a peasant child in a Bethlehem stable would have such an effect on the future of the world?

And Easter morning reminds us that even the greatest tragedy of life is gathered up into the loving arms of a God who loves us more than we can ever imagine, a God who brings new life even out of death. So there is hope, always. We must learn how to live that hope in the seasons of life with faith and courage, even when meaning is scarce, and pain all too real.

Even our small faltering steps of faith can be a powerful reminder to us and to others of the greater picture of life. But those steps are also more than a reminder. The steps may be small, but one step leads to another, and somewhere along the way, fear begins to fade and faith strengthens just as surely as the days get longer and winter moves toward spring. Whatever the season, life is about faith and hope, one day at a time, one step at a time.

By Dent Davis
Pastor, Tryon Presbyterian Church