As Virginia and I were on our way home following the Sunday morning assembly, we saw a beautiful tree in its magnificent golden splendor, and I thought of the words of God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth in Genesis 8:22. It reads, “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease” (NKJV). God remains faithful to His promise. We have the changing of the seasons. Autumn, with the beautiful and diverse colors of the foliage, is a favorite season of the year. Yet, we know that soon the array of such beauty will end, and winter will begin.
I also thought about the cycles of life and the comparison of the seasons we experience. Some of us are past autumn, and now we are in the winter of our lives. However, winter has its own beauty as does old age. While the valley has its splendor, the view from the mountain top is often more beautiful. Because of God’s grace and the death of His Son, we know that we are nearer to our home than ever before. Following winter, spring will soon follow with new life springing forth in the vegetative kingdom.
The child of God finds comfort in the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:50-56, which says:
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
Furthermore, we have this blessed assurance found in Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”
