Seasons

Saturday, it was absolutely gorgeous outside... sunny, in the 70's, completely blue sky. As my cousin's son said, "You just don't get these kind of days very often!"

As I enjoyed it on the deck, my thoughts went from the changing seasons of the weather to changing seasons of life. For months, I have been "benched" from active service as my body struggled to regain strength. These seasons are not easy for me as I have a people-pleaser, serve, problem solving personality. Slowly, God is bringing me to a place of enjoying this time and learning to encourage others from this view while learning to simply "be" with God.

My contemplation led me to think about why God would have so many of us with chronic illnesses in this place. Yes, there is the purpose of being prayer warriors for Him. I do not diminish that purpose. Yet, my mind went back to the garden of Eden. In the beginning, they simply enjoyed fellowship with God. They weren't frantically running around serving Him. They walked with Him through what the day brought. He enjoyed a relationship with them enough that when it was broken He sent His Son to take our punishment in order to enjoy the relationship again. I was in awe again at His love for us, for me!

The word "fellowship" appears throughout His Word and seems to be a rich study. I am astounded that the God of the Universe longs for fellowship with me! Could He have brought me to this season specifically to teach me the importance of fellowship with Him and to thus change my focus as I draw close to Him? What an amazing thing!

Many of you may also be confined to your "sick bed." How would our perspective change if we saw our sick beds, our chronic illnesses as our Garden of Eden for this season?