"For every time there is a season" ~ a reflection for the New Year

There is a time for everything

a season for every purpose under heaven

a season to be born and a season to die,

a season to plant and a season to harvest;

And God’s gift to us is to eat and drink and find fulfillment in our work.

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2, 13

At the beginning of a new year, we look ahead wondering what it might hold for us. With the writer of Ecclesiastes, we query what lies ahead for us: promise or pain; fulfillment or frustration, life or death. And where, we wonder, where will God be in all of this? Will we find the fulfillment  promised in our daily lives?

Our lives are full of many births and many deaths, each one as miraculous or difficult as the last.  This coming year will be no different.  The important thing for me in these words is that there is no dying without rebirth, no planting without harvesting, no tearing without mending, no hurting without dancing. No matter what the coming year holds for us, we will experience joy with our sorrow, faith in our doubting, and trust in our questioning.

May we, as we move through this coming year in love for others and creation, discover and live into the full meaning of our existence.