Season changes are difficult, especially in the south. Transitioning from winter to spring brings the expected allergies with fresh cut grass and pollen floating around every corner. Or the peanut dust that looms in the air during harvesting season as we transition from fall to winter. Past our health issues comes the difficulties of attire. While it might be December in Alabama, you could very well be rocking your t-shirts and shorts with Christmas coming up in a week. Rarely do our seasons follow the temperature changes as accurately as they are supposed to! How do we put away our sweaters if at Easter time we could possibly be shivering in our new sleeveless dresses and heels?
Season changes in life are even harder than those concerning the weather. It seems as though since I have entered into my senior year of high school, my life has been a continual cycle of transitions. While most have been exciting and fun, several have also come with their challenges. Such as when I moved to college, expecting to never look back, I found myself within two weeks knocking on my back door with tears streaming down my face and begging for some good home cooked food and lovin’ from my mama!
Recently my family has walked through a new season- one that none of us have experienced: my sister getting married!! It has been one of the most exciting times of our lives! However, it hasn’t come without the presence of some tears as well. I vividly remember the night Beth and Aaron got engaged. After he got up off one knee and everyone came out of hiding to congratulate the couple, most tears turned to excited hugs, gasps, and hand shakes! But mine, for some reason, would not stop flowing! We had gathered around the two and everyone was talking and moving around- the room was a circus! People would come by to hug on me, not knowing that they would be getting the waterworks show as they approached! They just wanted to be excited and I couldn’t dry it up! During a prayer over the my sister and her fiancé everyone was quiet in soaking up the moment, while I attempted to hold in sobs and the dreaded ugly cry!
Of course, the tears didn’t mean I wasn’t excited for the two! One, I am just an overly emotional person that sometimes can’t seem to get a old of myself (hopefully, Ive got some sisters out there that can relate!!) I was overjoyed for my sister and soon to be brother-in-law for this new journey. I could not have hand picked anyone better for my sister. Aaron was her true love, and he had easily become a part of my family! So the tears were tears of joy and excitement! I would by lying though, if I didn’t admit the hidden feelings of sadness and fear as my family walked our first few steps on this new territory.
I knew the next year would be full of fun, planning, and anticipation for the big day and life ahead! But at the end of that year, my sister would go home to a place that she didn’t grow up calling home- a place apart from me. I also knew this would be one of the “firsts” that we would face without daddy. Most of those came and went within the first few years after his passing, but marriage was one that we had only dreamed of facing without him being by our sides.
We now sit one week past the wedding date that we waited so long for! So much planning went in to make the day just perfect to celebrate Beth and Aaron, and I believe we succeeded! Everything flowed smoothly, and the happy couple left out of the reception with big smiles on their faces (and birdseed in every crack and crevice!) It was the sweetest day that I wish I could relive over and over again. Beth and Aaron have been two of the most important people in my life, pouring into me in such special ways. I loved watching the Lord bind them together as one before all their friends and family, and then getting to break it down on the dance floor with them as we breathed out a big sigh of relief that we all survived and didn’t go broke!!
The past couple of days have continued the time of transitioning in our lives. This past Saturday the five of us sat around our dining room table as we have so many times before for supper. Something happened afterwards, however, that normally doesn’t. Beth and Aaron went home.
Home.
As in not 717 county road 73.
But THEIR home.
That was the first time it began to really set in, that all this wedding stuff wasn’t just a fun time and afterwards everyone would go back to the way it was before. No longer can I yell down the hall and borrow that shirt or text her to bring me more toilet paper or hop in her bed to watch a movie together.
The last night that we all spent in the house, the night before the wedding, was the peak of the season change- whereas I expected it to be towards the end. Mama told us that night about the first night that we ever spent just the four of us in this house, after daddy went home to Heaven. We all climbed into her bed and tried our hardest to get some sleep. And now, 14 years later, we are seeing that season of our life end and a new one begin. As Beth now lives with Aaron, and I get ready to head back to college, its bittersweet to begin seeing less and less of the house that made our home. As I look back over the time the four of us have spent inside these walls, I see the faithfulness of the Lord all over our lives. So many things could have gone wrong. There were countless opportunities for the devil to come in and steal from us. There hasn’t been a time in our lives that the Lord wasn’t surrounding this home, protecting us, guiding us, giving us strength, and filling us with His joy! Of course its hard to walk away from that season of our lives, but it also propels me into the next one knowing that my God walks alongside me. I’ve seen, I’ve experienced, so I can go forward, as well as the rest of my family, knowing that He will be our guide into this new time in our lives.
You might be experiencing season changes in your life as well. It might be due to something exciting, or it might be because of something more difficult and devastating. I challenge you to look back over the time you’re transitioning out of and intentionally look for times that the Lord was present when maybe you weren’t aware of it at the time. Many times, our lives seem like a puzzle with pieces scattered everywhere, but when we back up and glance at the bigger picture- we see a beautiful image forming! He is working the same in our lives as we go from season to season!
Celebrate the newness in your life and what the Lord is doing and will do in the time to come. Remember His faithfulness. Trust him. Take the next step.
Dear sweet Jesus,
Thank you for being constant in the midst of all our change. You never change. May we trust you as times in our lives transition. May we celebrate who you are, what you’ve done, and what you are going to do! Thank you for my family, for what they mean to me, and for this season change in our lives. Although there are pieces that are harder to handle- none of them make it unbearable! You created marriage in a beautiful way and I have loved getting to watch you work through this time. Thank you for loving us and making us your bride!
Love, Em
Remember + Rejoice 