Embracing the Season

I was talking with some friends with the week they were saying hos the love the fall season and was dreading winter. Here in West Michigan, we have a weather condition called “Lake Effect”. This is when cold air blows across Lake Michigan and it picks up moisture which turns into bands of snow. sometimes the bands as very heavy snowfall and this cause driving treacherous.

You are able to live within most of the seasons year-round if you move to regions of the world. IF your favorite season is spring you can move tot he rainforest if summer you and move closer to the equator, if winter mover northern or southern hemisphere, but in experience autumn you need to live through the other season to get to fall.

Each season has a purpose and for replenishing the land, we can also see each season on our lives to cause replenishing for us. Jesus read for the book is Isaiah in the gospels about all He came to do for us. and in Isiah 61 it says that we would be called oaks of righteousness. so let see what happens to an oak tree throughout the seasons.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion — to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Isaiah 61:1-3 ESV

Spring
This season is also known as an “after-rest” season. The nutrient that has been stored in the roots for the last season begins to flow upward. This is where the tree begins to grow depending on the length of winter. If a shorter growing season then the tree would have tighter rings which cause the tree to be stronger. The twigs and buds began to will stretching out and leaves and flowers open. The flowers are not as showy as other tree flowers and are pollinated by air instead of bees or insects. If this is a new tree and it first season then it is a sapling and will not reproduce.

Summer
In the summer the tree seems to not be chaining much but most all the energy is reserved for reproduction. Oak trees will not produce seed until the fourth year this is when oaks are considered a mature tree. The pollinated female flower will reproduction you will see the oak tree producing acorns (a seed). In late summer and early autumn, the trees will begin to drop their seeds.

Autumn
Oaks begin to go in the early-rest when the weather gets colder. If they have not yet they will drop their seeds. The acorn being heavy they will drop close to the parent tree. Squirrels and other animals will carry them off cause them to spread further. The sap will begin to flow back down to the root system, causing the leaves to change and drop from the tree. The White Oaks will begin to germination processes by sending down a taproot and display foliage, while the red oaks, not germanate untile spring.

Winter
Winter is not a time of death and some will say, it is a time of rest this is where the trees and some plants will slow down their processes. These oaks are still alive most functions are in the root system. During the period there are many metabolic and developmental processes going on in the buds and twigs. These processes include respiration, photosynthesis, some cell division, enzyme synthesis, production of growth stimulators, and dissipation of growth inhibitors.

As Believers, we go through long winter seasons and we do not like the place that seems like death but is actually rest. There are many things going on underneath the ground, our roots are being strengthened, our branches and buds are getting ready to produce. The longer the winter the tighter the growth rings the stronger the tree becomes. Even if you believe it is a dead season there is so much happening even if not this is visible.

Every season has a purpose for our lives, we can expect these processes to produce no matter what is happening in our life. We don’t cause the processes to it happen it is part of the life cycle. Once you come to maturity you will produce seeds, but by your lifestyle or choices, you create good or bad seeds.

Once a seed is sowed it will produce unless it is halted by another or by lack of recourses. So if you do sow a bad seed you can ask the Holy Spirit to cause that seed not to produce in you life. In the same way you can ask for the right recourses to be supplied that seed to grow.