Grateful for Every Season

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”

Ecclesiastes 3:1

My son, my daughter, you have already walked through difficult seasons — of weeping, of waiting, of silence — and maybe you're in one right now. I won't hide from you that there is a time to plant and a time to harvest, a time to laugh and a time to weep. No season lasts forever, not the good ones and not the hard ones.

Today I invite you to be grateful even for the hard season, because it too has a purpose. It was in a desert season that Israel learned to depend on my daily manna. It was in a prison season that Paul wrote the deepest words about contentment. Nothing you pass through is wasted in my hands.

Look at the season you're in right now and search for a purpose, even a small one, that has already shown up in it. Give thanks that this season is fulfilling its appointed time, knowing the next one will come at the right moment — not a second before, not a second after.