Waiting on GodSample

Seasons of Life

The word deciduous means "falling off at maturity,” and the term is mostly used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, but also to the shedding of petals on flowers or fruit when ripe. It can mean “the dropping of a part that is no longer needed” and the process expands to the animal kingdom. Deer antlers, baby teeth, and a snake’s skin are deciduous. And so are some trees. That’s why we get the beautiful fall colors that I love so much.

This could bring to mind the idea of seasons. Seasons in nature, seasons in life. Sometimes our lives are times of harvest, or times of dormancy, of shedding the old for re-growth, or whatever. The proverbial “Circle of Life.” Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us of this.

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 pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, 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.

To those of us in the Baby Boomer generation, we learned this maybe for the first time in 1965 when The Byrds recorded a song that used this as its lyric almost verbatim from the King James Version. The song was called “Turn, Turn, Turn” and written by Pete Seeger. It was a lovely thought.

But think of the deciduous things I mentioned before and then the ancillary meaning of the word “the dropping of a part that is no longer needed.” That brings to mind another sub-theme. Some things we leave behind might grow back in time like deer antlers or leaves. I guess this is an assumption of the definition of the word. But I've got things in my life like grudges, prejudices and bad habits that need to disappear forever. I need to deem them "no longer needed" and pray they never grow back.

Hebrews 12:1 reads. “…let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us…”