In the fall where I live, there isn’t much autumn to see at all. Very little changes in the leaves that seem to cling to the trees for as long as they like, without having to worry much about the cold rushing them off their places on the branches; very little changes in the air; very little differences to observe from the rest of the year. Only incrementally can you discern the minute changes if you’re looking close enough, or maybe if you’ve been here for long. 

It starts off gradually and then shocks you with a sudden cold front here or there out of nowhere. Observing this phenomenon year after year is always fascinating to me. And maybe ours may not be like the climates elsewhere in the country (or world for that matter), but call it home if you want to. I do. :)

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:1 that, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

It goes on to say:

“a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance.” (Ecclesiastes 3:2-4)

To dance.

This entire book is about the writer, commonly believed to be King Solomon, searching for meaning in earthly things and coming up empty. 

The book concludes with Solomon's big discovery, “Fear God and keep his commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). But not before one of the more quotable passages from this book and in scripture that we find earlier in chapter 3, verse 11:

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

I love this passage. To me, it stands apart in this entire book. It’s absolutely stunning.

I think it relates to passages like the famous one in Romans 8:28 about God working all things out for the good of those who love Him, and others like Romans 8:38-39 that says nothing can separate us from the love of God, or still others like the one in Isaiah 55:8-9 about God’s ways being higher than our ways and His thoughts our thoughts. 

I think it’s all connected and it all points to us knowing Him, deeply knowing Him. This is our highest aim, in anything I believe. 

And to know Him is to love Him, and to love Him is to obey Him. 

Maybe we can’t always understand His ways, or fathom how God changes the seasons in our lives, but we can embrace it when He does. 

To learn in the hard seasons to cling to Him and be grateful for His presence, His comfort; but also, to let the seasons change when He chooses. And to embrace it when He does.

There may be a time for mourning and grief, yes, but just so, there is also a time for praise and dancing. 

Dancing. 

How foolish would it be to hear new music and refuse to move to its rhythm? How sad would it be to get so used to hearing the somber procession, you fail to recognize the percussion now playing? 

How remiss to get so used to living in Florida, you forget that even subtle changes mean that fall is finally here. 

Even if you can’t fully recognize it at first. 

A new season has arrived, perhaps the one you’ve been hoping in secret for all along. 

So better not to fight God’s hand any longer, dear friend. 
Better you start dancing when you hear the music and let yourself fall, into a new season.
And better to rush forward, to go, when God brings you into a new era.