“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NLT)

Our days, seasons, memories, and plans consist of a symphony of moments strung together through events, decisions, influences, conversations, and associations. Each one of those moments holds meaning in our presence or absence that impacts the next moment, creating a space for everything that happens, as God uses it in its imperfect beauty to guide and refine us. 

Everything Has a Time

So many moments go unnoticed throughout our lives, yet they create lasting impacts we may never know or understand. In the way we react to others or in the simple decision to excuse ourselves from a situation, we move through life with everything creating a ripple effect into the next activity in its own time. As difficult seasons approach, we often drop to our knees to pray for a way out, but as time has revealed life’s blessings in the hard times, I have learned to pray instead for the wisdom to appreciate everything in the trials of life.

He is in Everything

It is often easy to see God in the good moments. In the seasons that we are healed from illness, get the job that we need, or even find a great parking spot, we utter, “Praise God,” and continue about our day, but as there is a time for everything, we tend to discount God’s presence in the trauma, grief, and trials. Perhaps the good seasons don’t even receive praise for God, but rather, are we promoting our own personal praise, while we blame God for the difficulties that we face?  The world creeps into our thoughts so quickly through everything, causing doubt, denial, blame, and pride until we lose sight of how God is in control of the entire puzzle that we are attempting to navigate on our own. 

Gratitude in Everything

All moments in our life have a time or a season, and when those seasons bring struggle, it is important that we remember that God is working all things for good.

In the bitter wind and cold of winter, He brings rest and hibernation, surrounded by frigid beauty and silence.

In the flooded overwhelm of spring precipitation and storms, He brings growth and new life. 

In the stifling heat and tender burns of summer, He brings light and ripened change in sustenance and shelter.

In the crisp air of autumn, He brings a harvest and preparation for shelter for the impending seasons ahead. 

God is in it all. He uses everything from the darkest cold and treacherous heat to the loveliest breeze. The standout moments of our lives reveal intense emotion, lessons, and assist us in building the lens we use to translate the world around us, but the smallest moments that we purge from our mind as we switch rooms can be the most significant for the Lord to use. In a door held open for another, a missed appointment, a slow car traveling below the speed limit, a hangnail, a hug, or the number of hours of sleep we are afforded in a day; God can improve a mood and fight depression, reroute from a toxic conversation, prevent a car accident, fight an infection, promote healing, or reduce stress, while we unknowingly stroll through the mundane without a second thought. He uses it all in every season.

The Encouragement

Today as you read this and consider the coffee that got cold or the socks that fit just right, consider gratitude and thanking the Lord for all of the minuscule moments that connect everything, because he is in it all for purposes that we cannot always comprehend.