We read in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

I love spring with all the excitement of new things. As temperatures rise, flowers bloom. Trees grow green.

Baby birds and animals abound. More and more outside activities pick up. Kids’ sports, gardening, cycling are just a few of the things that bring fresh new joy. Then, summer brings full-speed productivity and fun.

Then comes fall.

Fall is a time of year that always makes me feel a little more reflective on life. It is always hard for me to let go of the summer. The color of the trees in fall is beautiful, but I hate seeing the frost-killed garden. On a deeper level, it is unsettling to think of the passing of time in our lives.

We only have so many seasons after all. Falling leaves, like failing health or loved ones lost, signal our own mortality.

I’ve never been a big fan of winter, although I’m happy for people who ski or enjoy the winter months in other ways. I don’t like cold, and the daylight is shorter than I prefer.

Winter comes anyway, like it or not.

Thankfully, the weather is just one of many factors creating the environment wherein we craft our lives.

The minor inconveniences of weather don’t outweigh the many other blessings in life.

All the seasons bring life lessons for us. For example, even though trees look dead in winter, we know that important processes are still taking place beyond our view and eventually those processes will result in a resurgence of growth and productivity when the time is right.

That reminds us of how God continues to work in us in ways that are sometimes unseen, but that are also necessary. When the time is right, the new growth and productivity will appear in beautiful and sometimes surprising ways. If it were not for the promise of springtime, impending winter would be depressing.

Similarly, without springtime’s Easter and the promise of resurrection, mortality would seem suffocating.

Thanks be to God, we have a hope that braces us for winter.

We can enjoy the full spectrum of life’s stages, knowing that the God who awakens the daffodils each spring and renews the forests, orchestrates our renewal as well.

Perhaps the practice we get of letting go of things as fall slips into winter is good practice for our souls as we grow in the art of trusting the God who specializes in springtime.

Jeff Fugitt is the pastor of Cassville United Methodist Church, located at 601 Gravel Street in Cassville. He may be reached at 417-847-2328 or cassvilleumcpastor@gmail.com.